Editorial Desk: Shoot to kill order was given to police long ago. Now a new order has been issued for police to carry loaded rifles to shoot if threatened. We have been told earlier also that police do not carry arms to do nothing. Now, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Md. Asaduzzaman Mia has given the fresh directive following hacked to death of a police constable and another seriously injured at a checkpoint at Ashulia near Dhaka. A police patrol was fired upon at Brahmanbaria on the same day. There have been other incidents endangering lives of police. There is every reason for police administration to feel alarmed and angry.Undoubtedly, it is very sad and deeply disturbing to find police to have become objects of targeted attacks and all police officers have been asked to give the highest importance to their own self-defence.Even an ordinary citizen has the right to kill in self-defence. But the court has to be satisfied that taken away one’s life was unavoidable for the survival of the person attacked.How seriously the police will take such direction of carrying loaded rifles and killing people in self-defence is a matter of great concern. But to say in so clear terms that killing by police in self-defence will be justified may aggravate the law and order situation if police get the idea that they have all freedom to kill.Our Constitution prohibits taking life of people without judicial process and the people want to enjoy the constitutional guarantee for their safety.Lives of the police are valuable; their lives must not be wasted so that they can save the lives of the people. The police are maintained for saving and protecting the lives of the general public.The police are risking their lives everyday everywhere for the cause of making life safe for all. But the question is: Are we putting the lives of police in danger unnecessarily?When first time the suggestion came before one party rule of 1975 that for safety of the Members of the Parliament heavy weapons should be supplied to them. General MAG Osmani and Barrister Mainul Hosein disagreed. Our reasoning was that it would only make our MPs dangerous targets. For self-defence carrying weapons is not the answer. Weapons are met with more dangerous weapons.We said that we should not do anything that would make our MPs special targets. However, later after one party was formed the MPs were given powerful weapons not to them personally but each of them with an armed security guard. How far that improved the law and order situation that time is for the police officers to know best. But MPs became special targets and they never felt safe to move without an armed body guard. Some were killed also.In England, the police still now do not carry guns save on special occasions. This practice is the result of countering public fear of armed police. The consideration was that armed police themselves could become a danger for safety in public life.Our country is in confrontational situation arising from confrontational politics. It is our deepest fear that wrong politics is pushing our country towards politics of armed confrontation.We cannot build a rational and peaceful nation abandoning rationality in politics.We can say with certainty that the government will not agree to sit with other political parties to find a political solution. The government thinks its solution to remain in power is the best solution. They have the state machinery with them and they have no reason to feel powerlessThe police must be saved but how best to do it that is the question. Our anxious consideration is that giving police more and more arbitrary power to deal with people’s lives is not the right way to make their lives also safe. We must make our politics safe and tolerant first.Relying on such huge police force our politics will get deeper and deeper embroiled into the politics of armed conflict. Nobody in his senses would like to see Bangladesh going the way of Syria or Iraq. All should think how to make politics more rational and less dangerous so that we can rationally organise our society safe for all and not just for police. Unless the society as a whole is safe it cannot be made safe for any particular section.We have to accept that police is not for politics. Let the politicians show they can do politics without involving the police or without making police political targets of the extremists.We have also to concede that peace and safety cannot be restored through violent politics. The police have their special knowledge and training about how to keep them safe while making public life safe.
