LONDON-BASED Amnesty International said that Bangladesh government has allegedly killed 466 people last year in the guise of an anti-drugs campaign — what appears to be a wave of extrajudicial executions. The rights watchdog in the report “Killed in Crossfire: Allegations of extrajudicial executions in Bangladesh in the Guise of a War on Drugs” stated that allegations of enforced disappearance and fabricating evidence against the law enforcement agencies are high. The report revealed how the government willingly failed to investigate deaths of people killed in the so-called ‘gunfights’. The government and the law enforcement agencies are in the spearhead to violate the basic principles of the Constitution regarding the rights of people.
The 466 suspected extrajudicial executions last year alone marked a threefold increase from previous year and the highest in a single year in decades. Amnesty examined hundreds of cases of suspected extrajudicial executions carried out by the Bangladeshi law enforcement agencies in anti-narcotic operations and chose to document seven cases in details by interviewing 40 people, including witnesses, relatives and family members of the victims, and local people. The war on drugs has caused death of one person every day. As there is an involvement of the Rapid Action Battalion, it appears that they have acted outside of the law, the victims were not arrested. Some were forcibly disappeared from their homes and their relatives only saw them next as bullet-riddled corpses in the morgue. The anti-drugs operations have spread terror in some of the country’s poorest neighbourhoods, where people fear the slightest suspicion of being involved in drug abuse may lead to their loved ones being subjected to another alleged extrajudicial execution.
Instead of launching proper investigations into these killings, the authorities sought to hush up or hold show trials but did not know how to handle the situation. There are also doubts if terrorism existed in a way propagated. When you have a government not transparent and not accountable the people are confused about what to believe and what not to. Now we find student and youth fronts of the ruling party were actively involved in terrorist activities including other political crimes in collaboration with law enforcing agencies. Ugly and unbelievable things are happening now. These could not have happened without connivance of state powers. It is so sad that for availing the opportunity of personal gains all kinds of criminal activities could go on in the name of politics. Now we have a government with mess everywhere for any future government. The country has reached a stage where governing has become impossible.
The 466 suspected extrajudicial executions last year alone marked a threefold increase from previous year and the highest in a single year in decades. Amnesty examined hundreds of cases of suspected extrajudicial executions carried out by the Bangladeshi law enforcement agencies in anti-narcotic operations and chose to document seven cases in details by interviewing 40 people, including witnesses, relatives and family members of the victims, and local people. The war on drugs has caused death of one person every day. As there is an involvement of the Rapid Action Battalion, it appears that they have acted outside of the law, the victims were not arrested. Some were forcibly disappeared from their homes and their relatives only saw them next as bullet-riddled corpses in the morgue. The anti-drugs operations have spread terror in some of the country’s poorest neighbourhoods, where people fear the slightest suspicion of being involved in drug abuse may lead to their loved ones being subjected to another alleged extrajudicial execution.
Instead of launching proper investigations into these killings, the authorities sought to hush up or hold show trials but did not know how to handle the situation. There are also doubts if terrorism existed in a way propagated. When you have a government not transparent and not accountable the people are confused about what to believe and what not to. Now we find student and youth fronts of the ruling party were actively involved in terrorist activities including other political crimes in collaboration with law enforcing agencies. Ugly and unbelievable things are happening now. These could not have happened without connivance of state powers. It is so sad that for availing the opportunity of personal gains all kinds of criminal activities could go on in the name of politics. Now we have a government with mess everywhere for any future government. The country has reached a stage where governing has become impossible.
