THE very question of ASK Executive Director, Sultana Kamal ‘How many people with hands on their chest can say that they are leading a peaceful life?’ carries an answer which insinuates the fear and injustice that prevailed throughout 2014. If the past is any guide, then similar uncertainty over the human rights situation of Bangladesh persists even in 2015. While presenting the “Human Rights Situation in Bangladesh 2014: Analysis of Ain O Salish Kendra (ASK)” report on the eve of the New Year, the ASK chief termed the country’s overall human rights situation in 2014 as alarming. The report covered matters like deaths in police custody, communal and gender-based violence, and harassment and killing of journalists alongside enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings which were on the top most rights violations in Bangladesh in the just concluded year. Moreover, people’s right to choose their leadership has almost gone astray through a most farcical January 5 elections leading the country into a vulnerability due to political volatility in the coming days.
ASK reports said that the law enforcement agencies allegedly abducted 88 people in 2014; 42 of them never returned while bodies of 23 were found later. Instances of enforced disappearance were higher last year than the previous two years, the numbers being 53 in 2013 and 56 in 2012 respectively. Families of the victims mostly pointed fingers at RAB and police detectives for these crimes. Serious allegations against RAB had been raised after the now much known seven murders in Narayanganj.
Violating citizens’ right to justice, the law enforcers frequently took over the law at hands and killed people in the name of ‘crossfire’. There were 128 such crossfire killings in 2014. Custodial torture claimed the lives of at least 60 people. A new trend of rights violation ‘shooting in the leg of an accused by law enforcers’ was also witnessed by the Rights Bodies in last year especially in Jessore, Satkhira and Dhaka.
The Human Rights Watchdog also said, 147 people were killed in 664 political clashes while 34 died and 2,206 got injured in 171 infightings within the ruling Awami League last year.
In 2014, 707 women were raped. Of them, 68 were killed later and 13 committed suicide. 146 women were subjected to sexual harassment. 14 of them committed suicide. Journalists were harassed across the country in at least 239 incidents, which included the murder of two journalists, last year. 33 Bangladeshis were killed by the Indian Border Security Force along the border, mentioned the ASK report.
However, Article 32 of the Bangladesh Constitution guarantees the right to life and liberty, which reads: “No person shall be deprived of life or personal liberty save in accordance with law”. It now seems that this provision exists only on paper. Institutions of the state are acting against the law of the land.
