LAW enforcers produce crime suspects in protective gear before the press and in courts but do not do so when they take out the suspects in night-time operations for cohort arrests and arms or drugs recovery. The double standards of the law enforcement agencies raised concerns among rights activists and citizens as such operations often caused death of suspects in ‘crossfire’ or ‘gangland infighting’.
The Home Minister, Asaduzzaman Khan, however, claimed that law enforcers always tried to protect the detained suspects and some police officials claimed that they usually took suspects in bulletproof vests and helmets. The rights activists brushed aside the claim as in almost all cases, the suspects who died in such operations were hit with bullets in the head or the chest.
Rights group Ain o Salish Kendra reported the death of 42 such suspects after their arrest and in operations for arms recovery or cohort arrests. It said that 86 of 412 people killed in 2018 and 29 of 412 killed in 2017 in reported gunfight were in custody.
The very process of taking suspects for operations in search of arms of other suspects was unconstitutional as Article 35(4) of the Constitution stipulates: ‘No person accused of any offence shall be compelled to be a witness against himself. ‘So why is it that police officers seem to be routinely doing unconstitutional acts ? As officers of the law they are bound to safeguard, not contradict the Constitution by their acts.
No one in Bangladesh is yet to bring about Public Interest Litigation against the unconstitutionality of such actions. If anyone did then the police would perhaps think twice before allowing suspects in their care to die, as only a stern warning by the highest authorities would perhaps go a long way.
Even more than such warning, however, is the fact that the police administration high-ups routinely ignore such behaviour. If the department looked seriously into such killings and had an intent to stop them forever, then the police would never do such activities again.
