Staff Reporter :
The killing of four protesting civilians in police shootouts – two on the spot – with scores of others critically bullet-hit at Kalihati in the Tangail district on Friday has raised serious question about the role of police in maintaining law and order.
Police have been given guns in defense of the people and not in self-defense of police to kill the people. When a police kills anybody he must face trial to prove that the killing was in self-defense judging by the yardstick of the police discipline.
It is a shame that killing at the hands of police has become too often to make the people deeply concerned. A report by human rights body Odhikar said at least 14 persons were killed in police shootouts from January to June this year while the number of total extra-judicial killing stood at 104. It also said three persons were tortured to death by police in police custody.
Another news report on September 4 said police killed two persons in Rajbari on charge of robbery. In another incident police killed six alleged tiger poachers instead of arresting them and put on trial.
There are also news of police collusively with political elements committing crime. Let the politicians do their worst but police must do their best to be people’s police.
Reports said police at Kalihati police station initially turned down a move to register a sexual torture case of a mother in front of her young son. Local people gathered at the local bus-stand next day and laid siege on Tangail-Mymensingh Highway to force police to take the case and arrest the culprits.
News reports quoted the Additional Inspector General of Police (IGP) Mokhlersur Rahman as making the point on Sunday saying if the OC had spared the prime accused as alleged action will be taken against him. He also hinted at ‘some other reasons’ may be local political reasons without giving details.
But it is sad four people were already killed who were protesting the complicity of local police with the accused persons and sparing of the main accused from taking to custody.
By training and education, police know best how to protect themselves without the easy way of killing. The guns are given to trained police men to use them in public-defense and not in their own self-defense.
But when police become party to unlawful activities and join hands with perpetrators their service discipline and code of ethics fail to guide them.
For an well-trained police to kill anybody in self-defense is a discredit.
Our inexperienced leaders in power anxious to use police politically may not know what police can do and what not; but the police high-ups must not convey the easy impression to the police that they are given the guns to kill people in any circumstances under the cover of self-defense.
The truth is that the police are given guns so that everybody does not have to carry guns for their own safety. The police are trusted with guns on behalf of the people for the defense of the people.
Our police high officials are educated and experienced enough to know it and yet excesses are committed by some police personnel tarnishing their image.
Police can’t justify killing in self-defense like ordinary people. Even the ordinary people cannot just walk away saying that he killed someone to save himself.
He is arrested immediately, refused bail and face lengthy trial to prove convincingly that he had no choice but to kill the other person; otherwise he himself would have been dead.
But trained police are engaged in duty to save lives of the people. They are duty bound to risk their lives in the cause of saving other people’s lives. That is why a good police is the people’s best friend. When they are forced to open fire they do it not in self-defense but to save the people from being killed.
Police training does teach police how to kill assailants in self- defense; though that was not the case at Kalihati at all. In fact, the expression “killing in self-defense” must not be found in police vocabulary.
This is not to say by any means that our costly trained police to die helplessly. What we want to emphasize is that they are trained not to die helplessly or run for their safety when danger confronts them. They must know how to tackle dangerous situations carefully. The guns are given to the trained police to use them in public defense and not in self-defense.
If police have to justify killing in self-defense the test will be more rigorous than applied in the case of ordinary people who are not trained to save lives of others.
The police are not only trusted with security in public life, but as law enforcers they are also to ensure justice under law. So the police have to build themselves as a highly responsible and respectable force dedicated in the service of a free people.
Withdrawal of the killer police for their safety cannot be enough. The people’s police are accountable to people. The accountability will be established if not today certainly tomorrow.
