AT least 369 people were killed extrajudicially under the guise of ‘gunfight’, ‘crossfire’ or ‘gun-battle’ between January and November 30, 2019. Of them, 191 were shot dead by the police, 96 others by the Rapid Action Battalion and 53 others, including many Rohingyas, by the Border Guard Bangladesh. The number of extrajudicial killings was 466 in 2018, 155 in 2017 and 178 in 2016, according to a rights organisation. Records showed that a total of 2,290 people were extrajudicially killed since 2009, though the present government came to power in December 2008 with the promise to end extrajudicial killing. The government is giving priority to social, cultural and economic issues but ignoring the civil and political rights of the citizens. Recurring extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, custodial torture and arbitrary arrests in alleged ‘false’ or ‘political’ cases coupled with shrinking space for freedom of expression are the key barriers to the protection of civil and political rights in the country.
The real reason for all of these killings and enforced disappearances is, of course, the inability of the government to tolerate any dissent. If you are protesting anything which goes against the government’s policies one can expect to be beaten up by pro-government thugs or worse, sent to jail on made up charges. Other cases of killings can occur due to police corruption–in a recent case where a father of two sons had one of his sons killed and was pursuing justice but had to give up because police arrested another of his sons on charges of Yaba trading and he had to end up dropping all charges against the police to get his second son out of jail. So we can see that social justice is becoming like the holy grail–it is talked about often but rarely seen or gotten.
The government must overhaul its security forces. Beating up people and killing or enforced disappearances won’t change the need for getting justice. The underlying causes of offering injustice must be looked into—and the government’s attitude to tolerating dissent must change.
