Allegations against law enforcers

While we would like to support our law enforcing agencies in their endeavours to maintain security for all citizens, we cannot help but feel concerned about some of their methods. The constantly emerging contradictory narratives that surround incidents involving law enforcing agencies cannot possibly have any positive effect.

One such event reported yesterday involves the death of a man while in Rab's custody, alleged by his family, to have been indiscriminately beaten up by Rab personnel both openly and while confined in his room. To no one's surprise perhaps—as this has nowadays almost become the norm—Rab has denied the allegations.

Similarly, we see conflicting accounts emerge in regards to the arrest of two alleged neo-JMB members who, according to counterterrorism officials, were arrested on Friday but, their respective families say, were picked up by unidentified men about a month ago. Keeping these two incidents in mind, we wonder why it is that we often see so much discrepancy between the accounts of law enforcers and the families of those arrested. Would people make up stories just to denigrate the image of law enforcing agencies time and time again? Is that really believable?

We have seen many instances of abuse in the past, largely due to the absence of accountability and transparency in the workings of law enforcers. Just this week, a case was filed against 11 law enforcers for allegedly gouging out a trader's eyes for his refusal to pay extortion fees. These do nothing but dent the credibility of law enforcers in the eyes of the public which is increasingly disheartening. The law enforcing agencies should function in a manner that instils public confidence and upholds the rule of law.