THE promises of upholding the rule of law and maintaining the sacredness of the Constitution by the government have apparently become a farce while the government legitimizes the extra-judicial killing even now.
News media reported that with the killing of six alleged criminals on Sunday, law enforcers, mostly police, have killed 413 people since January 2018 breaching Constitutional rights of citizens. Police said the victims of the gunfights were accused in a number of criminal cases, but the cases against them cannot legitimize the crossfire.
It’s a much repeated statement of police that cohorts of the alleged criminals sensing their presence fired to the law enforcers, but there was no casualty on the law enforcers’ side. Besides, how the cohorts got the information of the drive is also a big question. Rights groups said of the 413 people who died in the last nine months while in custody and “shootouts” by the law enforcers, 260 were killed during the countrywide anti-narcotics drive. According to allegations raised by family members and witnesses, 21 people were detained by plainclothes men in the last nine months. Of them, two returned and 10 were later found to be arrested. However, the law-enforcement agencies denied such allegations.
The government has no record of success in eliminating drugs but has succeeded in making innocent helpless to the police. Nowhere police is seen as god and in Bangladesh they are to be less trusted for the simple reason that they are politicised and happy to be so politicised in the hands of the government.
Not just police, the Border Guards also should be accountable for drugs being smuggled into Bangladesh. The government must stop drug smuggling from the neighbouring country by strengthening border patrol, limiting access, promoting social, familial and religious values, and positive motivation. These can be the only sustainable solutions. Whereas the government has been maintaining double standards by letting ruling party MP Bodi of Cox’s Bazar flee the country. The extra-judicial killing is unconstitutional and hence derogatory to the reputation of law enforcers.
Our police must know that the country belongs to the people and we have a government not elected by the people. So they should be careful and not feel free about killing people. Bangladesh is a free country and everybody must be conscious that the police are to be people’s police. It is risky for the police and public servants not to keep that in mind.
