The Amar Bangladesh Party (AB Party) has condemned and protested against a remark by the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Md Ali Hossain Fakir, that police would carry out crossfire if necessary should the government give permission.
In a joint statement on Monday (26 October), party chairman Mojibur Rahman Manju and general secretary Barrister Asaduzzaman Fuad said such a remark from the head of a responsible state force was not only worrying but amounted to open contempt for the rule of law, human rights and citizens’ constitutional rights.
In the statement the AB Party leaders said that in any civilised, democratic state that believes in the rule of law, an officer holding the highest post in the police cannot speak openly in this way about the possibility of extrajudicial killing. The duty of a law enforcement agency is to bring criminals under the law, not to threaten anyone with crossfire outside the courts. Government permission does not make the extrajudicial killing of any citizen lawful. State power must be used within the limits of the constitution, the law and human rights, they said.
They said that under Sheikh Hasina’s rule, part of the police force was used as a tool of repression, enforced disappearance, torture and extrajudicial killing. The memory of the shooting and killing of unarmed citizens, including students, children, women and working people, during the July uprising in particular still haunts the nation. If, after that experience, the top level of the police sends a message about bringing back crossfire, it will run against the hope for state accountability and a democratic transition, they said.
The AB Party leaders also said the police are no government’s private force. Ensuring people’s safety is the constitutional and legal duty of the police. The police’s sense of duty and professionalism should not change with a change of government; their main commitment should be loyalty to the law, free from political influence. The IGP’s remark has made people fear that an attempt is being made to bring back a culture of taking lives on the basis of political decisions, they said.
In the statement they said extrajudicial killing can never be an acceptable way to fight crime. Anyone involved in a crime must be arrested, the accusation proved through an impartial investigation, and the person tried before an independent court. A mindset of taking the law into one’s own hands in the name of fighting crime, or of giving a state force the power to kill, is dangerous for a democratic state.
The leaders said that when the head of the police force, which is responsible for the safety of people’s lives and property, talks of bringing back crossfire, it is natural for questions to arise about people’s safety. Such remarks will hamper efforts to rebuild public trust in the police and bring back memories of past extrajudicial killings.
In the statement AB Party chairman Mojibur Rahman Manju and general secretary Barrister Asaduzzaman Fuad demanded an explanation from the government of the IGP’s remark. They also sought a commitment that crossfire and the culture of extrajudicial killing will never return to Bangladesh in any form.
They also said firmly in the statement that enforced disappearance, murder, torture and impunity can have no place in the state of the new Bangladesh won through the sacrifice of the July martyrs.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report