We welcome the circular issued by the Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain requiring female magistrates to be assigned for interrogation of women and children in rape and other sexual cases.
One wonders why it took so long to insist that the women and children sexual victims should be interrogated by women magistrates. The male police must also be stopped from questioning women and children sex victims at any stage. It is widely known how the male OC of Sonagazi Police Station joked and teased student Nusrat with sexually salacious questions when she went to complain about sexual harassments by the principal and others.
Nusrat Jahan Rafi was set on fire two days after detained Sonagazi Madrasa Principal Siraj Ud Doula gave a directive to some of his followers when they visited him in Feni District Jail, investigators said. It remains unclear exactly what the directive was but officials said two prime suspects — Nuruddin and Shahadat Hossain Shamim — and three other youths had planned the brutal act on April 5, just a day after the jail meeting.
Arrest is easy and so far, 13 people, including two female students of the madrasa, have been found involved in the crime. It has been known that several female students and their guardians complained to the Upazila Nirbahi Officer, Additional District Magistrate, madrasa governing body and the police station at different times.
But neither the local administration nor the madrasa governing body took any action in this regard. Siraj reportedly used to maintain close links with local administration and influential leaders of different political parties. The role of Moazzem Hossain, the then OC of Sonagazi Police Station, who filmed Nusrat while she was giving her statement following the harassment by Siraj on March 27, must come under severe criticism as he completely failed to provide any sort of protection to Nusrat — which eventually ended up costing her life. How a police officer can do if there is any disciple in the police force?
The OC was enjoying asking sexually explicit questions in the knowledge of his complicity of the offence of burning to death the helpless student. He forgot that the people do not pay police to treat them jokingly.
The people are surprised how the police high-ups are trying to ignore the criminality of the disciplined police officer for whose negligence or intentional inaction was responsible for Nusrat’s untimely brutal death. The OC should have been the first to be arrested as an accused.
The harsh truth is some of the police do not care to remember that they are the people’s police paid by the people. We must urge the high officials to make the police force the people’s force for protecting the people.
Dhaka Cyber Tribunal on April 15 took the case of Sonagazi Model Police Station Moazzem Hossain into cognisance and asked the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) to submit a report by April 30. We find the cyber case against the OC is no case; he is to be charged in the murder case as one of the murderers.
His complicity with the gang of local criminals gave others the necessary courage and protection. We are sure Nusrat was not the only girl victim in the hands organised gang that included political leaders and the OC himself.
It is shameful how our politics degenerated to be anti-people and police appeaser. In a situation like this the people cannot be sure of police protection and undesirable tension is growing up between police and the people, which is not good.
The intellectual hypocrisy and criminal dishonesty among the educated self-seekers enjoying benefits from the government are ready to blame society for degeneration of values deserve hateful condemnation.
They refuse to see how corruption and abuse of police power is tolerated by the government in their own interest. They are ungrateful to the people although they get all benefits from the public funds. These dishonest intellectuals cannot see how politics has been criminalised and crimes enjoy impunity.
The Chairman of the Human Rights Commission plays no effective role in defending human rights but draws fat salary and enjoys other benefits happily without doing his duty. Yesterday evening he appeared in a television programme to praise government for the empowerment of women and he showed no concern how helplessly our girls are easy victims of rape and killing after rape daily.
The girls go to police but going to police is no help. Others admits that going to the police is not much of a help because of the political disempowerment of the people of the country. But Chairman had nothing in condemnation of the OC Moazzen Hossain. Some police officers show the arrogance that they are the king makers.
The Chairman of the Human Rights Commission blamed society for loss of values but not the government or politics of the country. He finds nothing wrong for destroying public accountability about public services. The best thing would be to abolish the useless Human Rights Commission.
We do not need the Human Rights Commission as a protector of the government. He did not say anything about the constitutional obligation of the government to protect the people’s right to life.
