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Editorial

When custodians become predators

A good move to make law enforcers accountable
12 July 2010, 18:00 PM
EDITORIAL
IT is perhaps for the first time in our history that a police officer along with ten policemen of Singra Police Station in Natore, have been sent to jail for killing a man in so-called crossfire while in their custody. We welcome the news with the hope that it will be the start of what we have been calling for so long establishing accountability of the police. We hope too that this will also be the end of the brazen violation of human rights and rule of law that such killings amount to. The noticeable aspect of the case is that it was confirmed prima-facie through a judicial enquiry that established the fact that the victim was killed in police custody. One wonders whether this might have been possible if the enquiry was confined at the departmental level, which more often than not tries to find loopholes in the allegation, and the enquiry, if at all, is conducted in a manner intended to save the accused rather than unearth the truth. It is with deep concern that we have been noticing the spiraling incidents of extra-judicial killings in the name of crossfire deaths and deaths in police custody. And we are happy to note that the highest judiciary of the country has not only taken cognizance of the matter but has also acted on it. While upbraiding the law enforcing agencies for the killings and seeking explanation of the three deaths recently in police custody in Dhaka, the High Court was constrained to remark that the law enforcing agencies did not have the right to kill anyone in custody, not even one accused of murder. There is nothing worse than to have the agencies entrusted to protect people's lives become the predators. We feel that this is a good beginning to establish the regime of accountability, particularly of those that are supposed to guarantee the citizens their personal security. We feel that not only will this set the right example for all, the fact that the law enforcers have been made to go through the rigours of law will enhance the dignity of the legal process; it will certainly boost people's confidence in it to see that nobody is above the law, and that all transgressions, whoever causes it, shall have to be accounted for. We hope that the process initiated by the judiciary will be carried forward, and all such killings by police and RAB so far, be accounted for in the same manner.

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