Editorial
Government must allay the fear
On Saturday, September 15, JCD President Mashiur Rahman Rony went missing. His family says plainclothes police picked him up from Badda but the police have denied the allegation. On Wednesday, three young men, Shafiul Alam, Monirul Alam and Monirul's friend Abul Hayat, were picked up by allegedly plainclothes police from the airport where they had gone to pick up Shafiul and Monirul's parents who were returning from Hajj. Later they also picked up two more people, one of them a 15-year-old. And again, the police denied having picked them up.
These are just a few examples of young men being picked up allegedly by members of law enforcement, their detention denied by police and then all of a sudden acknowledged with various cases against them. There are also mysterious cases of individuals being abducted and gone missing for days only to be found dead with bullet or other injuries. On Friday, the bullet-ridden bodies of three young traders of garment factory leftovers were found in a culvert in Purbachal. On Sunday, September 16, the bullet-hit bodies of two brothers from Jessore were found in two different upazilas.
These are incidents reported in a span of not even a week. There are reports of such missing people almost every day. It is frightening enough when people are picked up by apparently members of security forces. It is even more so when no security agency will admit they have been arrested or detained.
The fear of loved ones gone missing, ending up as dead bodies, is becoming a common phenomenon and it is these fears that the government is obliged to allay.
The police or any other security force is required to inform the families of anyone they arrest or detain and produce them in front of a magistrate. Denying that they have arrested someone and then admitting it a few days later violates the law of the land. The state must put an end to such arbitrary practice.
- Courtesy: The Daily Star / Sep 18, 2018
No comments:
Post a Comment