‘I want to see him once before I die’, father’s plea to get back missing son

Ismail Hossain, a father whose son went missing, has said he wants to see his child once before death after searching for eight years without any success. Parents of missing children, some searching for eight years, some for one and a half months and others for just 38 days, broke down in tears as they demanded the return of their sons and daughters at a press conference held at the Shafiqul Kabir auditorium of Dhaka Reporters Unity (DRU) on Sunday.

Zero Missing Children Foundation, in cooperation with the families of missing children, organized the press conference titled ‘Where is my child’ seeking the search and safe return of the missing children. Members of 30 families of missing children took part in the event and demanded effective steps from the Home Ministry to find their children quickly and return them to their families.

Police headquarters data shows 15,717 children went missing across the country in the seven months from January to July this year. General diaries were filed in these cases and police claimed 13,679 of them were rescued while 2,038 children, about 13 percent of the total missing, are yet to be traced.

Ismail Hossain said his son went missing from Lalbagh in the capital on the morning of January 11, 2018 when the boy was eight years old. Even after eight years he has found no trace of his son. He said everything he had earned while searching for his son is gone and he has become destitute. “I want to see my son once before I die. I have nothing else to ask for,” Ismail Hossain said, adding that he did not get the expected cooperation from the administration after his son went missing.

Md Hossain of Khajura village in Jhenaidah said his 13-year-old son Md Ali, a hafiz of the Quran, went missing after leaving home on July 29. He has searched various districts looking for the boy. Md Hossain alleged that he initially did not get police cooperation even to file a general diary after his son went missing. “I have not been able to caress my son, feed him or buy him good clothes for one and a half months. My sorrow has no end,” he said.

Archana Rani Das, a garment worker and mother of five-year-old Jadab Karmakar who went missing from Baliapur in Savar 38 days ago, broke down in tears and said, “I want my child. I cannot live without this child.” She said she had decided to commit suicide after failing to find her son but later stepped back from that decision thinking of other family members.

Sadat Rahman, president of Zero Missing Children Foundation, demanded that the state take effective steps to find the missing children quickly and return them safely to their families.

Following the missing and murder of child Muntaha in Sylhet in 2024, a mass signature campaign was launched demanding the introduction of an Amber Alert system for rescuing missing children. Continuing that effort, the ‘Missing Urgent Notification’ or ‘Moon Alert’ and the toll-free helpline 13219 were launched on January 13, 2026 with the cooperation of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and related initiatives. It is now working as a supportive measure nationwide for the prevention and rescue of missing children.