Killing systemically without trial is inhuman and murder. Those who are guilty of murder shall not be able to save themselves for such crime of murder. It is no defence that they obeyed orders of higher authority. Nobody is above law; which does not mean the government is above law. What is most disgraceful is that our own police are killing their own people. It is a shame for the whole nation.
The fact is that the government itself is gripped by anarchy. No people’s government can allow gun power to be the supreme power much above the law.
Pressed to comment on the audio clips related to Teknaf Municipality Councilor Ekramul Haque’s death, the Home Minister yesterday said that they were looking into the allegations. Ekramul was shot and killed on May 26 under the government’s controversial ongoing anti-drug crackdown. However, his family’s claim is that security forces killed Ekramul in cold blood. The fact is that after allowing killing without trial there is nothing that the Home Minister can do by way of investigation into the murder of anybody killed by RAB or the police. In the name of ending drug trade no responsible government can end lives of the people.
Five days later, his family released four audio clips that recorded terrifying conversations between Ekramul and his daughter and wife before he died of multiple bullet injuries. The audio conversation recorded on a mobile phone also captured sounds of gunfire and groans of the dying man. Ekramul is just one of the many victims and our biggest question is can the police give back his life for his wife and children? The government may as political force do any thing wrong but the people police must not have any politics to kill even a single citizen of the country. The benefits they are enjoying are provided by the people’s money. They are disciplined force and killing without trial is not police behaviour. We are a free country and the police must not behave like a colonial police unaccountable to people.
The recent nature of killing under the banner of ‘gunfight’ dates back to the post independence days of the first half of the 70s. Also today’s RAB is strikingly similar to the erstwhile Rakkhi Bahini practicing extra-judicial killings. We don’t want to return to that insecure and perilous era once again.
Such brutal idea of killing people without trial came with those who went to India. They tried to show they came back as victors ” to punish us as enemies of independence. While those who went to India their patriotism should be accepted as beyond doubt. It is a terrible break of faith with our people who stayed in the country to suffer inhumanly and die helplessly. Any genuine leader of ours would have felt guilty for not keeping their brave words to be on our side and fight the Pakistan army.
We are against killing without trial because we want to find the guilty by a court of law. The idea of police justice is denial of judicial justice. It is not the rule of law that allows killing for the excuse of fighting drug trafficking.
We do not know if they are killing political or personal enemies as generally claimed.
The police cannot accept the methods of terrorists and kill people without recourse to law.
What we are witnessing right now in Bangladesh is the extreme state of lawlessness. Shootouts do nothing to cure the root causes. We must remember that with the death of alleged drug traders, law enforcers are losing valuable sources of information which could help them nab the masterminds-the drug kingpins-who are calling the shots.
The police must remain law enforcers and not to become killers isolating from the law of the country. We do not want to lose our police as protectors of life.
