Video of police setting fire to Santal huts: Where do we stand now?
Watch the heart rendering moving images of a group of policemen in armed gear apparently setting fire to rows of Santal huts and compare the actions with the motto of Bangladesh police "Discipline, Security, Progress". How are we to interpret the contrast between their stated motto and their activities?
The video clip first released by Al-Jajeera has shaken our confidence and made us shrivel at the insensitivity of the lawmen and their system of operation.
The video clip speaks loud of the blatant human rights abuse on the very small and highly disadvantaged Santal men, women and children, which Sultana Kamal, a leader of human rights movement in Bangladesh, has termed "similar to genocide."
The moving images have made us rethink what kind of a system we are living in where the force that was supposed to protect us and give us security had instead staged setting fire to the poor Santals' huts.
Not only that, after the whole thing came to light more than a month after the heinous act was committed, police flatly denied having taken part in the arson. As if what we see on the television screen are all fictitious. As if the unreal scenes of police setting fire one after another hut are all from a docudrama.
The whole episode of the attack on Santals is a national shame. A clear case of how the state failed to protect its citizens. Is it an indication of how we want to treat our indigenous people? We hope not.
However, it is the High Court that has restored some of our dignity.
Remember how the poor Santal man who had received several bullet shots during their eviction by police and local goons was handcuffed to the hospital bed? It was under a High Court order that the handcuffs were taken off and delivered us from a deep shame.
It was finally the High Court's order that allowed the Santals to harvest their crop grown on the land they were swept off so brutally.
It was the High Court again that asked the authorities to explain why legal actions should not be taken against persons responsible for the looting, firings and arson.
And now, just today after the video had surfaced, the High Court has once again ordered a probe if the cops had any role to play in the arson.
For the hapless Santals, the last hope seems to lie with the court and not with the society and the state.
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