It is often doubted that the inhuman crimes like lifting, torture and deaths from cruelty are committed by our lawful forces. Such horrendous crimes are committed not for fighting crimes but politically to frighten the people with a sense of total insecurity. The people are living in panic of insecurity thinking that anybody can lift them and kill them or rape their girls. So they fear the government and do not disapprove any wrong done by the government. Whether the plainclothes are government people needs also to be seriously looked into.
Such practice to create a general sense of insecurity and fear was not known to our politics before the birth of Bangladesh. These ideas are imported and must be discarded.
We find it difficult to believe that our people belonging to police or other law enforcing agencies can be so savage as to be heartlessly cruel to end in deaths and forced disappearances.
Whatever others say to glorify them, the war of independence was not fought within Bangladesh and the exiled government had not faced an after war extreme situation. The people were traumatised by savagery of Pakistan occupation army.
But the people of Bangladesh found the government at war with them and began a countrywide campaign against terrorism. Secret killings became part of governance. Only a government that wanted to show the world how anarchic free Bangladesh is, would resort to terrorism and panic unnecessarily.
Arbitrary and unlawful detention, abduction, enforced disappearance, torture and killings have painted a grim picture of the overall human rights situation in the country. The affected people are not given the chance for a fair trial. This not only undermines the rule of law but also makes judiciary helpless spectators. This is not the way to build a kind and humane society. We opposed secret killings then when first began we do so now and go on doing till we learn to take everybody as valuable.
In the latest incident, cartoonist Ahmed Kabir Kishore was detained in May 2020 for posting on Facebook satirical cartoons of the government’s response to Covid- 19 pandemic. Denied bail six times, writer Mushtaq Ahmed, who was also arrested the same day with the cartoonist for his comments on Facebook, died in prison on February 25, 2021. Kishore was released on bail, a week after Mushtaq’s death as a result of angry public reaction. He suffered injuries and loss of weight caused by torture, as he claimed, with bamboo stick covered with iron sheet while in custody. No longer able to hear with his right ear, Kishore also has difficulty in walking due to pain in his left knee and ankle.
Charged under the draconian Digital Security Act (DSA), Kishore and nine others in the same case have to face up to 10 years in prison solely for peacefully exercising their universal right to freedom of expression, if convicted. But even that black law was not followed. The savagely torture and death was not caused under the Digital Act. The officials or whoever they are need no law to punish the people. They did not care to know how angry reaction is growing for an explosion.
No one can blame rightly the Digital Security Act for torture and death before even trial of Mushtaq and Kishore began. So inhuman torture and death caused as a result of lawless brutality, no law was necessary.
We want the police and others in the government should conduct proper investigation to get the clear picture about how much control they have over the torture machinery. It should also conduct investigation as to whether private forces other than law enforcing agencies are also involved in these incidents using the name of law enforcers. Mr Kishore claimed he was beaten by various types of people. It is the responsibility of every sane person not to allow torture as a show of power. The Constitution prohibits torture. We cannot have government officials not abiding by the Constitution or the law for living in an orderly society.
