Our respected home minister has said no abductions, disappearances, and extra-judicial killings were taking place in the country. On the contrary, he said the law and order situation in the country was actually improving. This bizarre statement was made following the kidnapping of seven men in Narayanganj in broad daylight from court premises whose bodies were later found in the Shitalakhya river. And the police didn’t have a clue.
A week had passed before the police raided the residence of the principal accused in the case. They found no one there, at least not who they were looking for. Why couldn’t our law enforcing agencies raid the place immediately? Is this not cause for concern?
One amusing aspect of this otherwise worrying matter is that, if nothing else, the minister can see the hands of BNP men behind the murders. He knows this, even though the wife of the deceased Nazrul Islam has charged a local AL leader and his men, and Islam’s father-in-law has blamed RAB for the killings.
As always, such tactics of blame game have not only backfired but have also destroyed whatever image they had as the spokesmen of their party or the government. And unlike the earlier cases of forced disappearances and murders, the Narayanganj killings have put the incumbent government in a very embarrassing position simply because it is the bloody fallout of an intra-party conflict.
Crimes like kidnapping and enforced disappearances have long been in the news, and Narayanganj has earned a name for such unbridled open terrorism. The police cannot arrest the criminals and have no clue about the many incidents of crime being committed across the country. Young Twoki was brutally murdered in Narayanganj two years ago and his killers are still roaming freely. But none could shake the foundation of the government like the seven abduction/murders in Narayanganj.
The government could not make much headway in the investigation of the murders, and action from the highest court came only after a relative of one of the seven victims accused RAB of being involved in the killings in exchange for a huge sum of money. Thanks to the courage of that bereaved member of Nazrul’s family and the HC’s taking cognisance of it, the investigation in the murder case has had some development. Three RAB officials were forced to retire for their alleged involvement in the case and will have to face arrest as the High Court ordered the Home Ministry to take necessary steps immediately.
The bench of Justice Mirza Hussain Haider and Justice Khurshid Alam Sarkar said the trio could be apprehended under Section 54 of the Code of Criminal Procedure as an indication of their involvement in the incident was apparent from their retirement. The court said the arrest order could be executed if they were not accused under the penal code or any other special law. Upon their arrest, the court said the trio must be handed over to the Detective Branch of police, which is investigating the case, for interrogation.
Now, if any member of a state agency were involved in the crime under review, as is alleged, the question arises whether they got into it on their own or followed the bidding of some unknown quarters. But who has the kind of clout to use a crime-busting state organ for criminal purposes unless they have high political connections? If RAB was complicit in it, then it is none but some politicians in power who should be blamed for such degeneration.
Different human rights bodies have long been pressing the government to look into the incidents of kidnappings, forced disappearances, and murders where an accusing finger is being increasingly pointed at the law enforcement agencies. Even as recently as March, the human rights watchdog Ain O Salish Kendra published a report showing how the number of such incidents has increased at an alarming rate in recent months compared to what it was last year. According to the report, the number of forced disappearances had shot up to 41 within January and February this year. Compared to the rate of such disappearances in 2013 – around nine every two months – this is an increase of more than 455%. But the government ministers or the heads of the respective law enforcement bodies were not ready to take these figures seriously.
The solution does not lie in disbanding RAB or any other unit of the law enforcement agencies. While those organisations are certainly in need of radical reform, it is more important to free those organisations from political interference and allow them to run independently.
It is really unthinkable that in a civilised society, some 2,200 have been victims of extra-judicial killings since 2004 and no proper investigation has been made to find those involved in these killings. Public perception is that killings committed by law enforcement authorities tend to go unpunished.
We need to do a better job of bringing these people to book. Nobody should be above the law.
It is our irony of fate that our two major political parties have no principles, no ideology, no set policy, and no goal except retaining power or gaining power. There are no rules in the game except that we must win. In such darkness, who will shed a glimmer of hope?