IT is human nature to learn from past experiences. But when it comes to deaths in so-called ‘crossfire’, law enforcement agencies seem to have learned nothing of the sort. Rights activists say almost every time a detainee is taken out for a “raid”, he gets killed. So by now, law enforcers should know that they may “come under attack” by criminals, as they claim. Then why don’t they protect the detainee?
Law enforcers and rights bodies have no record or memory of shootouts in the country before 2004, when Rapid Action Battalion was formed. On August 6 that year, top listed criminal “Pichchi” Hannan was killed in crossfire during a drive while in custody of the elite force.
In the last 13 years since, more than 1,900 people have been killed in such incidents involving police, RAB and Joint Forces. At least 350 met such a fate in 2005, the highest in a single year, according to rights body Ain o Salish Kendra. The scariest fact is that nearly 800 have died while in the custody of law enforcement agencies, which are bound by the law to protect the detainees.
On occasions, families also claimed their relatives were victims of “contract killing” by law enforcers, like the killing of seven people in Narayanganj by RAB members for money from a local godfather, Nur Hossain. (The High Court recently confirmed the death sentence of 14 RAB men, including three high ranking officials, in the case. Another 11 members of the force have been sentenced to various terms in prison.)
With a very few exceptions, these “shootouts” happen at ungodly hours and the media, unable to find witnesses or any other versions, runs the story putting the word “crossfire” within quotes. The two identical narratives police and RAB offer after such “crossfire” have become clichés by now.
While the tendency of the Security Forces killing criminals quietly did not originate in Bangladesh – we seem to have picked up the habit with alarming alacrity. While most of their ‘crossfires’ tend to be between criminals, there are also some political prisoners who have been subject to this. Both ‘crossfires’ and mysterious disappearances – which are much more murky, point to the ability of the security forces to operate with impunity, especially when they come into contact with criminals and political prisoners.
While we have a Police Bureau of Investigation we don’t have the equivalent of an Internal Affairs Department to check whether police do any misdeeds. It is time that such a department is founded, but whether it will do any good to check the current culture of impunity is unknown. At the least, it should make police think twice before indulging in being judge, jury and executioner all at once.
