Md Joynal Abedin Khan :
Many people, including commuters, shopkeepers and drivers, who have become bound to move in the field for professional duty or any acute purpose by maintaining the government instructions, have allegedly face embarrassed due to misbehaviour of a section of police.
The police personnel have charged baton and slap some people when they tried to convince them (cops) that they are not breaking rules and regulation as per separate notices circulated by the authorities concerned to curb COVID-19, sources said.
They alleged that such policemen hurled abusive languages to the people without any logical causes.
Legal experts and rights activists condemned such actions and termed it ‘unlawful and harassment of public.
Earlier, the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) has asked people to follow the WHO guidelines.
Some police personnel resorted to excesses while restricting people’s movement and enforcing social distancing the capital and some parts of the country, including Dhaka, Gazipur, Tangail, Rajbari, Chattogram and Dinajpur, according to media reports.
Some others incidents have been reported from Sonargaon of Narayanganj, Cumilla, Chandpur, Sylhet and Ashulia, raising alarm bells of food producers and truckers. They said such acts would severely hamper supply chain of the essential commodities and increase prices, added the media.
Even those who went outside to get their daily needs and an on-duty Medical Officer faced the wrath of those policemen, alleged some victims.
Members of law enforcement agencies have beat up and harassed delivery men of essentials and foodstuffs in various places of the country, ignoring the fact that movement of essentials is outside the purview of the 10-day closure, said leading food producers and suppliers.
Asif Iqbal, Deputy Managing Director for FMCG at Meghna Group of Industries, said it may be that the local administrations were not properly aware of Commerce Ministry’s instructions on facilitating movement of essential commodities and efforts of companies to cut scope of food shortage in the country. As a result, the unintended developments are taking place. If properly communicated, the number of such incidents will come down and things will be stable gradually Some footages of the police action went viral over the last two days. One of the incidents happened in Tangail’s Bhuapur on Wednesday.
“Hey, where is your mask?” a policeman was seen asking whoever were on the road and roadside shops in Bhuapur.
Without waiting for any reply, police started beating up owners of groceries and mobile-banking service providing shops, bikers, rickshaw-pullers, auto-rickshaw drivers and people on streets. Even they forced them to squat.
Rashidul Islam, Officer-in-Charge of Bhuapur Police Station, told the media that they have initiated “some awareness programmes in the locality”.
Asked whether beating up people for not wearing masks is lawful, he said that they had been trying to free the streets from gatherings for the last several days. But people were not paying any heed to them, he said.
In another incident, physician Suprov Ahmed was allegedly assaulted by policemen when he was returning home from his work at Pangsha Upazila Health Complex in Rajbari on Wednesday.
“I was coming back from my duty around 2:00pm on a van when the Pangsha OC intercepted my vehicle. Even though I said I am a doctor, the OC hurled abuse word at me and also beat me up with sticks,” said the Medical Officer in a Facebook post.
“At one stage, I said I am a government doctor and returning home after discharging emergency duties. The OC replied what matters that you are a doctor … ?” The Medical Officer said, adding that he informed the Upazila Health and Family Planning Officer, the Upazila Nirbahi Officer and the Civil Surgeon of the matter.
Officer-in-Charge of Pangsha Police Station Ahsan Ullah said they were “conducting awareness programmes” in the locality to fight coronavirus.
“The doctor was travelling on a van. He was aggressive and didn’t give his professional identity first,” the OC said, denying the allegation of beating up the doctor.
Supreme Court lawyer Jyotirmoy Barua termed the police action unconstitutional, unlawful, and unjustified.
“We saw such video footage of our neighbouring country. Our police also followed the same. We are not sure if the sticks used by the police are carrying the coronavirus,” the lawyer said.
Asked about the police action, Shafiqul Islam, Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner, said people were already in danger now, so police personnel were not supposed to do any wrong with them.
Sohel Rana, Assistant Inspector General (Media and PR) of Police Headquarters, said that police were working hard across the country to ensure the safety of people from the coronavirus, risking their lives.
“Police are politely appealing to people to follow the government directives, and the PHQ directed all units to deal people with modesty, professionalism and tolerance,” he said.
“Most often police don’t get proper cooperation while working on the ground. And not all the allegations against police are true too,” said Rana, adding that if any policeman was found to be unprofessional in performing their duties, “we must take action”.
In a query, he said that the PHQs have gathered some allegations against a section of police personnel and he or she will face tough action if the allegation will be proved.
Many people, including commuters, shopkeepers and drivers, who have become bound to move in the field for professional duty or any acute purpose by maintaining the government instructions, have allegedly face embarrassed due to misbehaviour of a section of police.
The police personnel have charged baton and slap some people when they tried to convince them (cops) that they are not breaking rules and regulation as per separate notices circulated by the authorities concerned to curb COVID-19, sources said.
They alleged that such policemen hurled abusive languages to the people without any logical causes.
Legal experts and rights activists condemned such actions and termed it ‘unlawful and harassment of public.
Earlier, the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) has asked people to follow the WHO guidelines.
Some police personnel resorted to excesses while restricting people’s movement and enforcing social distancing the capital and some parts of the country, including Dhaka, Gazipur, Tangail, Rajbari, Chattogram and Dinajpur, according to media reports.
Some others incidents have been reported from Sonargaon of Narayanganj, Cumilla, Chandpur, Sylhet and Ashulia, raising alarm bells of food producers and truckers. They said such acts would severely hamper supply chain of the essential commodities and increase prices, added the media.
Even those who went outside to get their daily needs and an on-duty Medical Officer faced the wrath of those policemen, alleged some victims.
Members of law enforcement agencies have beat up and harassed delivery men of essentials and foodstuffs in various places of the country, ignoring the fact that movement of essentials is outside the purview of the 10-day closure, said leading food producers and suppliers.
Asif Iqbal, Deputy Managing Director for FMCG at Meghna Group of Industries, said it may be that the local administrations were not properly aware of Commerce Ministry’s instructions on facilitating movement of essential commodities and efforts of companies to cut scope of food shortage in the country. As a result, the unintended developments are taking place. If properly communicated, the number of such incidents will come down and things will be stable gradually Some footages of the police action went viral over the last two days. One of the incidents happened in Tangail’s Bhuapur on Wednesday.
“Hey, where is your mask?” a policeman was seen asking whoever were on the road and roadside shops in Bhuapur.
Without waiting for any reply, police started beating up owners of groceries and mobile-banking service providing shops, bikers, rickshaw-pullers, auto-rickshaw drivers and people on streets. Even they forced them to squat.
Rashidul Islam, Officer-in-Charge of Bhuapur Police Station, told the media that they have initiated “some awareness programmes in the locality”.
Asked whether beating up people for not wearing masks is lawful, he said that they had been trying to free the streets from gatherings for the last several days. But people were not paying any heed to them, he said.
In another incident, physician Suprov Ahmed was allegedly assaulted by policemen when he was returning home from his work at Pangsha Upazila Health Complex in Rajbari on Wednesday.
“I was coming back from my duty around 2:00pm on a van when the Pangsha OC intercepted my vehicle. Even though I said I am a doctor, the OC hurled abuse word at me and also beat me up with sticks,” said the Medical Officer in a Facebook post.
“At one stage, I said I am a government doctor and returning home after discharging emergency duties. The OC replied what matters that you are a doctor … ?” The Medical Officer said, adding that he informed the Upazila Health and Family Planning Officer, the Upazila Nirbahi Officer and the Civil Surgeon of the matter.
Officer-in-Charge of Pangsha Police Station Ahsan Ullah said they were “conducting awareness programmes” in the locality to fight coronavirus.
“The doctor was travelling on a van. He was aggressive and didn’t give his professional identity first,” the OC said, denying the allegation of beating up the doctor.
Supreme Court lawyer Jyotirmoy Barua termed the police action unconstitutional, unlawful, and unjustified.
“We saw such video footage of our neighbouring country. Our police also followed the same. We are not sure if the sticks used by the police are carrying the coronavirus,” the lawyer said.
Asked about the police action, Shafiqul Islam, Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner, said people were already in danger now, so police personnel were not supposed to do any wrong with them.
Sohel Rana, Assistant Inspector General (Media and PR) of Police Headquarters, said that police were working hard across the country to ensure the safety of people from the coronavirus, risking their lives.
“Police are politely appealing to people to follow the government directives, and the PHQ directed all units to deal people with modesty, professionalism and tolerance,” he said.
“Most often police don’t get proper cooperation while working on the ground. And not all the allegations against police are true too,” said Rana, adding that if any policeman was found to be unprofessional in performing their duties, “we must take action”.
In a query, he said that the PHQs have gathered some allegations against a section of police personnel and he or she will face tough action if the allegation will be proved.
