Anti-crime drive counts more on unwanted means

The present government believes, like its predecessors, that "crossfire", "encounter" and "gunfight" are effective means to combat criminals, especially outlaws, home ministry sources said.

As a result, extra-judicial killings continue unabated despite widespread criticism by human rights organisations.

There have also been instances of killing wrong people, often innocent, just because of flawed tip-offs from Rab's sources.

The death of Kaisar Mahmud Bappi is a clear enough evidence of this.

Rab picked Bappi after a source had identified the BCom graduate as a notorious criminal. The elite force killed Bappi in its own controversial style on September 9.

It later claimed that a young man named Kamrul Islam Bappi was killed during a "gunfight" in Rampura. A relative identified the victim at Dhaka Medical College morgue and pointed out the mistake in the name Rab provided.

Bappi's family termed the killing a state-sponsored terrorism and demanded investigation into the killing and trial of those responsible.

Bappi's death is an eye-opener to the government regarding how dangerous these practices of crossfire, encounter and gunfight can be.

Unfortunately, the government is not considering any alternative to these forms of combating criminals and is rather intensifying the practice to improve law and order, said sources in the home ministry. Many ministers and ruling party leaders have expressed support to it, they said.

The Awami League-led government, however, took office early January with the promise to stop extra-judicial killings.

Over 100 suspected criminals and outlaws have since died in incidents of crossfire, encounter and shootout. One-third of them died in the last 30 days, which is a reflection of the government's intensified dependency on this "encounter" tool.

No policeman was killed in these incidents.

Talking to The Daily Star, many expressed their belief that the country's weak judicial system, where hardened criminals sneak through the loopholes of laws, is the reason behind these unlawful acts.

But government officials rather defended the ongoing extra-judicial killings.

Home Minister Sahara Khatun ruled out occurrence of any extrajudicial killings under the present government although she said, "What will police do if they are attacked or come under fire while trying to arrest criminals?"

Sahara said the ongoing drive against criminals and outlaws in different parts of the country would be strengthened in a bid to root out terrorism.

Home Secretary Abdus Sobhan Sikder said, "The government does not support such killings but the law enforcers have every right to self-defence when they come under attack by armed assailants."

At a recent press conference in New York, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said she is against extra-judicial killings. However, she defended the law enforcement agencies, saying, "Law enforcers cannot sit idle when a criminal opens fire on them."

Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan told The Daily Star, "We talk about human rights violation whenever a criminal is killed in crossfire but what about the rights of those who are killed by criminals?"

Former adviser to a caretaker government and human rights activist Sultana Kamal terms these means of extra-judicial killing an unacceptable short cut to combating crime. Such practice is nothing but the outcome of the weakness of the country's judicial system, she told The Daily Star.

She said if the government has any policy to kill criminals in crossfire or encounter, it must stop immediately. "If it does not have such a policy, it has to initiate enquiry into these killings and punish the persons or agencies responsible," added Sultana Kamal.

Former Home minister Mohammad Nasim also thinks that the practice has exposed the weak picture of the country's law and order scenario.

"A move should be initiated soon to give outlaws a chance to surrender and rehabilitate them," he told The Daily Star. Nasim had taken such an initiative under which outlaws surrendered with their arms in 1998.

Ruling Awami League lawmaker Saber Hossain Chowdhury, who is very vocal against extra-judicial killings, said such "calculated" murder simply cannot be acceptable in a civilised society.

The incidents of extra-judicial killing have a unique story and demand enquiry, he said.

Referring to his party's election pledge to stop extra-judicial killing, Saber said, "The commitment must be upheld and zero tolerance has to be adopted in this regard...These killings must be stopped for the sake of establishing rule of law in the country."

However, the AL's promise has turned out to be a mockery as the number of such killings has been increasing since the launching of a special drive against outlaws in the southwestern region in August.

Many national and international human rights organisations have demanded that the government stop such killings and produce the perpetrators before the court.

Highly placed government sources said police were given a green signal to combat the criminals, especially in the southwestern region where outlawed parties resorted to widespread extortion, murder and other serious crimes.

"It seems that the present government is also following the policy of the past caretaker and the BNP-Jamaat alliance governments with the police presenting similar stories of gunfight with 'criminals' after each incident of killing," said a cabinet minister, wishing anonymity.