Editorial
High Court warning on custodial killings
All extra-judicial deaths must now be investigated
WE are heartened by the warning served on the government by the High Court on the matter of three recent deaths in police custody. Coming on the heels of an earlier HC directive on the issue, this warning should be an eye-opener for the authorities. It should alert it to the clear violation of the law and human rights that the law enforcers themselves have been indulging in of late. By taking up the matter in right earnest, the judiciary has given the nation to understand that not all is lost, that indeed it is possible for us to have the rule of law form the centerpiece of collective life in the future. In other words, there is reason to hope that decency and morality along with the law will eventually be the cornerstone of life in Bangladesh.
Hope apart, it must be said at this point that had the executive branch of government played its proper role in seeing to it that such violations of human rights did not occur, we would not have come to this pass today. It should have been the responsibility of the government, especially the home ministry and the police department, to ensure that the three men who ended up dead once they were in the hands of the police were safe. It is a cardinal rule of governance that a citizen, once he is in police custody or is wanted by the police, must be made to feel that his life is secure, that nothing can harm him even as his alleged illegal activities are under investigation. That rule has repeatedly been violated in Bangladesh through the killing of people in so-called crossfires. We feel that the latest High Court move is an opportunity for a redress of all the wrongs committed by the security forces in the name of tackling crime. Human rights organizations as well as individuals must now go into the task of asking for, and getting, judicial directives for a full and thorough investigation into all the extra-judicial deaths which have occurred in the last few years at the hands of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and the police. A full inquiry and a calling to account of the RAB and police personnel responsible for all these deaths is a must if the bad record set by their actions is to be rolled back.
Such a move is dependent, however, on a universal denunciation of extra-judicial killings by politicians, academics, journalists and members of civil society across the spectrum. We must not lose sight of the fact that these deaths have not only led to fears amongst ourselves about our safety at the hands of the instruments of the state but have also given us a bad name abroad. In view of the latest HC directives, we expect the government not only to go after those responsible for the death of the three men in question but also reassure the nation that such deaths will be put to an end once and for all. Meanwhile, the higher judiciary could also take suo moto cognizance of all other cases of a violation of human rights and deaths at the hands of the security forces and forcefully intervene in the matter by asking for full and comprehensive explanations from the authorities.
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