Editorial
Extra-judicial killings
High time for remedial action
The chairman of the National Human Rights Commission makes a valid point. If indeed the security forces have had to act to defend themselves in crossfires and in the process shoot alleged criminals dead, there must be ways of validating such claims. Professor Mizanur Rahman has suggested --- and one cannot but agree with him --- that only the judiciary can determine if the principle of self-defence is a cause for law enforcers to kill their would-be assailants in extra-judicial manner. No one argues that in a skirmish where the Rapid Action Battalion and the police must defend themselves from criminal elements, they will do all they can to save themselves.
But then comes the critical issue, which is that the extra-judicial killings that have so far occurred in the country have nowhere been proved to have been definitive accounts of battles between the law enforcers and criminal elements. We have been told over and over again that those losing their lives were leaders of gangs that had fired on the security personnel and so had to be repulsed. It is a refrain which by now has turned into a cliché, for the simple reason that there has hardly been an instance in these so-called crossfires of any member of the security forces being killed or wounded. More amazingly, apart from the man killed in so-called action, no other criminal element 'launching' the attacks has been nabbed or wounded or killed. That is where worries have regularly been expressed by individuals and human rights bodies. The public expectation was that under the present government extra-judicial killings would be brought to a swift end. Unfortunately, that has not happened. Worse, senior government figures have of late given the impression of justifying these sordid acts as being defensive on the part of the law enforcers.
Unless remedial action is taken, popular faith in the rule of law will take a slide. For the government, it is important that it go back to the policy of zero tolerance it had earlier iterated about all illegal acts.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. 
Related News
Why is safe water inaccessible for millions despite rising spending?
6 hour(s) ago
Editorial
BB must confront bad loans’ true scale
18 June 2026, 18:38 PM
Editorial
Dolphin deaths must be investigated
18 June 2026, 08:00 AM
Editorial
Weak policing fuelling rise in crimes
17 June 2026, 18:18 PM
Editorial
Three union names, one troubling pattern
17 June 2026, 08:00 AM
Editorial
Comments