Beheading of Bangladeshis
Rights bodies challenge govt's role
A human rights organisation yesterday filed a writ petition with the High Court challenging the "inaction or failure" of the government officials concerned to save the lives of eight Bangladeshi nationals, beheaded in Saudi Arabia on October 8.
The petition sought HC's directive to the secretaries of the foreign and labour ministries to form separate committees to investigate the role of the Bangladesh embassy officials in Saudi Arabia in protecting the lives of eight men and to submit the report to it within four weeks.
The Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh (HRPB), which filed the petition, prayed that the court directs the officials to submit a report to it within two weeks on what steps they had taken to save the lives of the Bangladeshis.
It also sought direction from the HC to the officials concerned for providing adequate support and legal assistance to the Bangladeshi citizens abroad, if necessary.
The petitioner's counsel Manzill Murshid said an HC bench of Justice Farid Ahmed and Justice Sheikh Hassan Arif may hear the petition today (Wednesday).
Despite Bangladesh's repeated pleas for clemency, the Saudi authorities executed the eight Bangladeshi workers for their involvement in a robbery and subsequent murder of an Egyptian security guard in Riyadh in 2007.
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