Editorial
Branding whistleblowers as criminals
Public faith in law enforcement shaken
Mohammad Rajib and Sabuj Mia witnessed the abduction of four of their friends in Savar area on August 13, one of whom had informed the parent of one of the kidnapped who subsequently lodged a case of abduction with the police on August 17. Far from launching a formal investigation, we find to our horror that the police have incarcerated the two witnesses to the crime as possible suspects in the kidnapping case on the very same day of filing the case. Although the investigating officer claimed that the whistleblowers have been taken into custody at the request of the families of those kidnapped, the parents have stated that the whistleblowers actually did them service by informing them. We are forced to ask how judicious a manner in which the police has acted here.
The other mystery is that Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) claimed to have incarcerated the four on September 2nd. Despite eyewitness accounts of the four youths being picked up on August 13 by, what appeared to be law enforcement agents as they had handcuffs on them, the larger question to the public mind is that where then were these four individuals for the unaccounted 20 days? From our prior experience in such cases, the picking up of individuals by law enforcement agencies and holding them incommunicado for a period of time before producing them publicly have occurred in several cases. This only fuels our distrust about the account being given by RAB.
The labeling of whistleblowers as probable suspects is an ominous warning to future would-be good citizens. The message is that they may witness a wrongdoing, but they should not meddle and go about their own business. The downside to such rationale is that in the future the police can forget about getting any cooperation from the public. This case of four individuals is a matter of grave concern and we strongly draw the attention of the Inspector General of Police and the ministry of home affairs to get to the bottom of such errant behavior of the police in order to restore public confidence in the custodians of law and order.
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