|
Lawless
law enforcement in Bangladesh
Article
32 of the Constitution of the Peoples’ Republic of Bangladesh provides
that no person shall be deprived of life or personal liberty save
in accordance with law. However, legalisation of extra judicial
executions has reduced such constitutional guarantees to mere inscriptions.
As many as 111 people were extra judicially executed by the law
enforcement personnel in the country from 1 January to 30 September
2004 in comparison to 56 killings in 2003. At least 43 people have
been killed by Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) alone mostly in the
so-called 'crossfire' since it launched operations against the criminals
on 21 June 2004. Based on press reports, Asian Centre for Human
Rights documented 11 cases of alleged extra judicial killings by
the RAB in October 2004 alone.
Formed
by an executive order of 1 March 2004, the RAB has reported strength
of 4,525 personnel drawn from five military and para-military forces
- army, air force, navy, Bangladesh Rifles and Ansar and Bangladesh
Police. The deployment of members of the armed forces in combat
areas amounts to imposition of undeclared emergency. The members
of the armed forces, which are not disciplined in policing, have
been responsible for blatant extra judicial executions of the alleged
criminals. The notoriety that the RAB earned with in a short period
is evident from the fact that alleged criminals were reportedly
surrendering before the courts to go to jail to avoid being killed
by RAB in so-called cross fires.
On
the night of 9 October 2004, an imam of
a mosque, Anwar Hossain, 45, also a teacher of a local Madrassah
at Sreepur under Gazipur in Dhaka died allegedly from police torture
within hours of his arrest. The family members of the deceased alleged
that the police had been threatening to arrest him and demanded
Taka 5,000 as bribe. As he failed to pay the bribe, a local
police squad comprising Assistant Sub-Inspector Ashraf, constable
Borhan and one Dulal, a police informer, arrested Anwar from a tea
stall of a market at around 9 pm. While being escorted to the police
station, Anwar jumped into a pond and the policemen chased him and
caught hold of him. The policemen dipped Anwar into the water till
he became unconscious. The policemen then left the place dumping
Anwar’s body into a dark place near the house of one Tarabanu. Hearing
the news of the arrest, Anwar’s family members went to the police
station and inquired of his whereabouts. But the police did not
provide any information and drove them out of the station compound.
The family members later found Anwar lying unconscious and took
him to a nearby hospital where the doctors declared him dead. Anwar’s
body had injury marks in the chest and elsewhere. The police stated
that he was wanted in a case filed with the Dhanmondi police in
Dhaka under the Women and Child Repression (Prevention) Act.
On
4 October 2004, Anisur Rahman Anis, a ward-level leader of Jatiyatabadi
Chhatra Dal succumbed to his injuries at the Dhaka Medical College.
He was arrested alongwith two other friends by the RAB-4 squad in
front of Chhati Masjid near his house at Rayerbazar in Dhaka at
2.30 am on 1 October 2004. They came out of the mosque after offering
their Lailatul Barat prayers. The RAB personnel allegedly tortured
him brutally and when his condition became serious they admitted
him to the Dhaka Medical College hospital.
On
15 July 2004, RAB personnel allegedly picked up one Sumon Ahmed
Mazumdar, 30, vice-president of Jubo League’s ward No. 10 unit.
The deceased’s mother, Solema Begum alleged that two hours before
RAB personnel picked up Sumon, police officials of Tongi police
station accompanied by a BNP leader raided his house at Amtali,
Tongi. The police went to Sumon's house to search for firearms but
left the place finding none. On their way to their camp, the RAB
officials also allegedly picked up Sumon's cousin Lokman and Akbar
Hossain Pinku, both Awami League's youth front activists, and took
the three to a camp by pickup van after blindfolding them.
The
malaise lies in unrestricted powers given to the Bangladesh Police
under section 54 of the Bangladesh Criminal Procedure Code for arrest
without warrant. The High Court of Bangladesh in a judgment on 7
April 2004, while disposing a writ petition challenging persisting
abuse of the power and authority under sections 54 and 167 of the
Criminal Procedure Code directed the government to amend some sections
of the Criminal Procedure Code and the Penal Code of Bangladesh
within six months. The High Court recommended the incorporation
of the following provisions:
-
Police must disclose their
identity to the relatives of the person before arrest from the residence
or office;
-
Police must inform the
relatives of the arrested person over telephone or by sending special
messenger within three hours of arrest from out side the residence
or office. Medical check up of the person must have to be done after
arrest;
-
No detention after arrest
under Section 54 of the Criminal Procedure Code;
-
No remand under police
custody under section 167 of the Criminal Procedure Code;
-
Only the investigating
officer to interrogate the alleged accused in the jail custody but
no other agency;
-
Use of a separate glass
covered room in the jail custody for interrogation and the relatives
or lawyer of the accused can observe it;
-
Examination of medical
report of the accused, special diary opened after arrest, hearing
of the accused and his lawyers have to be taken into consideration
if the magistrate wants to grant remand in other cases;
-
The magistrate must show
the reasons to grant remand. The remand order passed by the magistrate
has to be approved by the District and Sessions Judge or Metropolitan
Sessions Judge;
-
The magistrate should take
action against investigating officer if there is any allegation
of torture to the accused during the remand and the allegation proved
through medical examination;
-
Enhance the punishment
for illegal confinement under section 220 and for custodial torture
under 248 of the Penal Code from two years to seven years and fine.
The
directions by the High court had little impact as the extrajudicial
executions by the RAB indicate.
Impunity
accentuates illegal measures that the High Court sought to address.
On 23 February 2003, the Bangladesh Sansad (Parliament) passed the
Joint Drive Indemnity Act barring people from seeking justice through
the courts for the deaths and human rights violations that occurred
during the “Operation Clean Heart” anti-crime drive, which caused
custodial death of 51 persons and involved an unknown number of
torture victims. Despite intervention of the High Court on 13 April
2003 by issuing a show cause notice to the government regarding
the legality of the Indemnity Act, the law continues to be in force
and therefore no action is maintainable before the courts of law.
In the few instances where charges were levied, punishment of those
found guilty was predominantly administrative. The RAB personnel
enjoy similar impunity and the courts can do little.
Undoubtedly,
there has been increase of criminal activities in Bangladesh primarily
as a result of poverty, corruption and nexus between the politicians
and criminals. Many of the well-known criminals are Members of Parliament
and serve in various capacities including as advisor to the Prime
Minister Khaleda Zia. The government has legitimate right to take
appropriate measures to provide security to the citizens against
crimes but the RAB has been openly resorting to blatant human rights
violations including extra judicial executions. In addition, no
action is being taken against politicians who are well known criminals.
The “Operation Clean Heart” failed to cleanse criminals in Bangladesh;
the RAB will meet the same fate. However, the campaign by RAB, who
have been deployed in all the 64 districts, will have significant
impact prior to the next parliamentary elections as political activists
of opposition political parties are also being targeted. According
to a report by Dhaka based NGO Odhikar, 395 people were killed,
5,004 were hurt, 2,436 arrested and 22 abducted in political violence.
Police in two drives arrested 8,500 people from 18 to 25 April 2004
and 5,748 from 23 to 29 September 2004.
|