Human Rights
IN PURSUIT OF JUSTICE
Biswajit Das
Biswajit Das is known to us through the gruesome photographs showing him desperately trying to escape his attackers who would not stop hacking him with sharp weapons. Otherwise, he was known as Bisho to his peers; an ardent fan of cricket, a happy-go-lucky young man whom everyone liked.
Little is known that his brother Uttom Das, a tailor, brought him to Dhaka six years ago to work at a tailoring shop in Old Dhaka. The rest has been told time and again; how he had become a victim of violent politics, a case of mistaken identity during the road blockade programme by the BNP-led 18-party alliance last December.
Police recently brought murder charges against 21 members of the Awami League's student wing Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), who mistook Biswajit for a Jamaat-Shibir activist and had no qualms about hacking him to death in broad daylight. With seven of the accused in custody, the police are searching for the rest, now in hiding.
The tailoring shop where Biswajit once worked. Photo: Prabir Das
Little did we know that it was the police, not Biswajit's family, who brought charges against the BCL men. Biswajit's brother Uttom says he is updated about the progress through newspaper reports or when journalists call him.
But why didn't he press charges when the whole nation had witnessed the murder? Uttom requests us to sit as he attends to his customers in the dimly-lit tailoring shop on Hrishikesh Das Lane in Old Dhaka. He now owns the shop he worked at for five years, a support for his family he does not want to give away after losing his brother.
“None among my relatives ever had any feuds with anyone, nor did they come across the police or had to file a case, ever. After Bisho passed away, I fetched my parents from Shariatpur, they were here for some two weeks but they didn't want to stay. My parents are just afraid to get into further trouble. They are concerned that I am still in the city; they want me home. But I cannot earn a living if I go back.”
Despite the vagueness in Uttom's response, it is obvious that the family does not want to invite more trouble by talking about it or seeking justice themselves - the accused are individuals backed by those who can do anything with impunity. Uttom mutters incoherently as we ask whether he hopes his brother will get justice.
It may be that Uttom and the family are aware that seeking justice often comes at a price, a perception reaffirmed by recent events.
Limon Hossain and his mother Henoara Begum. Photo: Star File
Take Limon Hossain, the college student from Jhalakathi, who was shot by the Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) and maimed on March 2011. As things stand, Limon was 'mistaken' for a terrorist. Limon and his mother Henoara Begum sought justice but found themselves caught in the cobweb of false allegations, legal intricacies, and endless harassment. When a police probe found the Rab innocent, Henoara filed a no-confidence petition challenging the police report. They lodged a case against the Rab men for shooting Limon, which led to amputation of his leg. And all hell broke loose.
The rest of the ghastly chronicle is followed by assaults against Limon and his family by a so-called RAB informant in the village, who also filed a murder case against them as his relative coincidentally passed away due to a heart attack. The RAB too, lodged two cases against Limon involving his relatives – an arms case and another for obstructing Rab operations. The deputy commissioner of Jhalakathi assured him of requesting the home ministry to withdraw the cases provided that Limon sought clemency in these cases, a move widely deplored.
Since then, Limon just cannot escape the entangling net dragging them through one humiliation after another. The legal proceedings continue to be complicated and seemingly everlasting. In March, exactly two years after being shot and maimed, a Jhalakathi court, for the eighth time, deferred the hearing of charge framing against him in the arms case.
Limon's mother Henoara Begum cannot exactly differentiate between the purposes of the 14 times they had to appear in the court in total. “I don't understand why the procedures are endlessly lengthening,” she says.
BCL men chased Biswajit and dragged him out of this market's first floor beforehacking him on this spot, now just another busy street in Old Dhaka. Photo: Prabir Das Advocate Akkas Sikder of Jhalkathi Judge Court, corroborating with Limon's lawyer Manik Acharya, explains why the process was prolonging, “Limon was held a minor in the arms case as he was under 18. The trial will actually begin as two separate ones, the second one for the seven accused listed in a separate charge-sheet. Limon's case was ready but the other one was not because the rest were absconding. So after the issuance of arrest warrants, the report stating failure to find them took one year to reach the court. A newspaper notice followed asking the fugitives that the trial would begin in absentia had they not attended the court; this took another six months.” “Then on the last three dates, both cases were finally ready but the judge was absent on the first date, Limon on the second. On the third, the public prosecutor requested more time for charge framing and it was deferred for the eighth time,” adds Sikder. Meanwhile, two years were lost from Limon's life. “The Rab is probably trying to bargain with Limon and his mother by saying ‘you withdraw your case, we will withdraw ours’. But Limon and his mother acted very bravely,” says Hamida Hossain, chair of Ain O Salish Kendra, who had been outspoken against the injustice, along with other human rights activists, since Limon was shot. She advises a way out, “I think this case is being prolonged unnecessarily. No doubt, Limon is being harmed in the process but this is also maligning the Rab's reputation. Things are stuck and definitely the government could have eased this deadlock.” Hossain observes that the government or the home ministry – whoever administers the Rab must step in to resolve these cases. Limon, however, seemed quite steadfast as he puts it clearly in a calm but firm voice, “The Rab shot me, I was crippled and now I have to repeatedly show up at the court and there's no end to it. I already requested addressing the honourable prime minister and the home minister that I want the false allegations withdrawn. It's alright that I lost a leg but I don't want further harassment.” Despite losing a limb, Limon says he barely lost anything. He went on to say, “I hope to carry on with my studies and prove that the attack hasn't quite defeated me. I earnestly seek the prime minister's intervention to end my plight. I think young people in the country are just like her children. I hope to share my plight with her if I could meet her.” Although Limon's family persisted in their cause, they remain unsure of when the moral arc will bend towards justice. Biswajit's family has probably learnt to let go thinking their son would not be back and thus averted engaging in vain discourse against the powers that be. The nation awaits justice for both. Nonetheless, their unfortunate tales compel us to consider all the oppressed and humbled who were denied justice and whether this is where and how things should really end.
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