Many have dismissed as mere eyewash an executive inquiry into the actions of the police and Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) that have left 408 people killed since June last year. They maintain such an enquiry will not be neutral since the law-enforcers are carrying out the acts with the go-ahead from the government.

" 'A man cannot be the judge of his own cause' is a universal maxim for dispensing justice. If only executive probe is done on the crossfire, it will be against this maxim," Justice Golam Rabbani, a retired judge of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, told The Daily Star on May 12.

There must be a judicial inquiry into the incidents to satisfy the victims' relatives and the public at large, he said.

"Especially in our country, people are suspicious about the sincerity of the executive authority. This is a sad fact," Justice Rabbani added.

According to the heads of the police and Rab, they did not find any unjustified use of firearms by their own men in the incidents that left 'criminals' killed to this day.

In the wake of strong criticism from home and abroad for flouting the constitution and the international human rights norms by allowing killings in so-called crossfire, the cabinet committee on law and order said on May 11 that an executive investigation would be conducted into every such incident.

"Probe into all the deaths will be conducted and action will be taken against the members if found guilty," LGRD Minister Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, chairman of the committee, told reporters after a meeting of the committee.

State Minister for Home Lutfozzaman Babar said orders had already been given to law enforcers, especially Rab men, for carefully carrying out investigations before they capture or arrest anyone. "Executive action will be taken if any innocent person is arrested, harassed or punished," he said.

But no one responsible for the killings have been brought to book, as the government remains totally indifferent to rights organisations' outcry against the killings and demand for ensuring people's right to be tried in the court for any crime.

"NO RIGHT FOR CRIMINALS"
The government defends the law-enforcers' actions by saying the people killed in such 'crossfire' and 'encounters' were criminals and criticised those expressing concerns over the extra-judicial killings.

"Criminals cannot have any human rights," Babar said at the end of last year, adding that the tough stance of the police and Rab has earned them people's support and that the law enforcers had harassed no innocent people.

He slammed the human-rights organisations for criticising death of criminals in 'crossfire'. "When criminals are being killed in encounters, human-rights organisations speak out. But when policemen get killed by the criminals, no one speaks about human rights," Babar said at Rab's first anniversary programme on March 26.

The state minister said the law-enforcers fired in self-defence, but records do not show any of them having received any major injuries during the operations that caused such a large number of deaths.

According to Law Minister Moudud Ahmed, the criminals are dying when Rab men are opening fire to protect themselves from their armed attacks. He argues that Rab has no alternative to opening fire; firstly, to save themselves and, secondly, to keep the arrested criminals in their control.

POLICE RULE
The Police Regulations of Bengal (PRB) say firearms should not be used other than in emergency situations.

The PRB says use of firearms will be applicable in three cases -- for self- protection and possession of property, for foiling illegal gathering and, in some cases, for making arrest. It mandates a full executive probe by the deputy commissioner, district magistrate, additional district magistrate, superintendent of police (SP) or additional SP for justification of use of firearms.

According to the PRB, the investigators are to send reports to the government and submit a copy to the SP or range deputy inspector general for sending it to the inspector general of police (IGP).

VERSIONS OF POLICE AND RAB HEADS
Although Rab, which launched formal operations on June 21 last year, sent an ominous chill through social veins by such killings, the police and their specially trained forces Cheetah and Cobra also came up with similar actions and shortly surpassed Rab.

According to rights bodies, 270 people have died in police and 115 in Rab actions since June 2004 to April this year and 23 more were killed in last 18 days in 'shootouts', but Rab puts the figure at only 83.

IGP Abdul Quayum said on May 12 he did not have reports of fault of any policemen in such 'encounters' that led to any of these deaths.

"Executive inquiries have been done into most of such incidents. But, till date, I don't have any report that anyone died because of the fault of the policemen," he told The Daily Star.

"Whenever any encounter takes place, the district magistrate applies the rule to conduct an executive inquiry, instructions are already there."

Asked whether the police are conducting any investigation into such incidents, the IGP said: "The police cannot run such investigation. Since they are a party to such incidents, the PRB (Police Regulations of Bengal) stipulates investigation by a neutral authority, that is, a magistrate."

Rab sources, meanwhile, said a full executive probe is being conducted into 58 of 61 incidents of use of firearms. The additional divisional commissioners are carrying investigations into six incidents and the district magistrates into 35, while the SPs and magistrates are doing the remaining probes. Reports of 35 investigations have already been sent and nothing 'negative' was there against the Rab men.

"There is a legal provision of probe into use of firearms and investigations are going on according to the law," Rab Director General Abdul Aziz Sarker told reporters last week. Rab itself is conducting a departmental inquiry beside the executive investigations, he added.

EXCUSE
The same old story of the victims' getting arrested and killed in 'crossfire' or 'encounter' or 'shootout' during operations for retrieval of illegal firearms and arrest of criminals at deserted places, mostly in the small hours, has become a cliché.

Police and Rab authorities send to newspaper offices press releases in the same format, with changes in the details of victims and 'recovered' firearms. The releases keep claiming that the victims died when his accomplices opened fire on the law-enforcers to snatch him or the victims tried to flee.

"CAPITAL PUNISHMENT WITHOUT TRIAL"
Eminent jurist Dr Kamal Hossain has identified deaths in 'crossfire' as extra-judicial executions that are in flagrant violation of the constitution and the international human rights convention, to which Bangladesh is a signatory.

"The law says minimum force should be applied for arresting a person. We should see whether proper law is applied since people are dying during arrests," he said and emphasised a proper probe into the deaths "as everyone has the right to seek trial".

Former chief justice and chief adviser to caretaker government Muhammad Habibur Rahman said at a seminar recently: "The law and order men would have been more cautious if a report on every death in 'crossfire' was asked for since the first such incident occurred."

Protesting the extra-judicial acts involving deaths, United Nations Special Rapporteur Asma Jahangir said "Although the government is trying to justify the extra-judicial killings here in the context of a grim picture of law and order, the police have become more and more unaccountable and corrupt with such power, and there is no rule of law."

Human-rights activist and legal expert Shahdeen Malik recently said: "Reports quite clearly indicate that purported crossfire did not take place, persons concerned were killed in a different manner."

"In any country with minimum respect for the rule of law, the law-enforcement personnel concerned certainly would have been suspended and proceedings by a judicial body would have been initiated immediately. This sort of killing would have certainly stopped after second or third such instance."

Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) protested the government decision on only executive probes into the extra-judicial killings and reiterated its demand for a judicial probe for the sake of neutral and legal investigation.

The SCBA leaders have dismissed the government decision as 'mere eyewash' and an 'ill attempt to suppress the facts'. They say the decision was taken in the face of protests and condemnations from home and abroad.

"While the administration is supporting each killing through press notes, the decision on the executive probe is nothing but a merely childish one and an ill attempt to fool conscious people of Bangladesh as well as the world," says a joint statement by SCBA President Mahbubey Alam and its Secretary Enayetur Rahim.

Senior Supreme Court lawyer Dr M Zahir says executive inquiries are not enough. "Any inquiry whether at the instance of the cabinet committee or the SCBA should have representation of the journalists whose job is to investigate and find out the truth."

He maintained that the inquiry committee must be independent and journalists should sit on it. But he has reservations about a purely judicial inquiry. "It is because judges are not good at investigation."

US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs Christina Rocca said at a press conference in Dhaka on May 12 that incidents of crossfire are not acceptable to the US government.

"The US government wants to see that Bangladesh has taken initiatives to bring to trial those involved in such extra-judicial killings," she told the government.

The state minister for home was not available yesterday for comment on the demand for a judicial probe.