HC asks govt why probe report should not be made public
The High Court yesterday issued a rule upon the government to explain in two weeks why it should not be directed to make public the probe report on the violence after parliamentary polls in 2001.
Home secretary, inspector general of police and other government officials concerned have been made respondents to the rule.
During the hearing on a writ petitioned back in 2009, the HC bench of Justice Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque and Justice ABM Altaf Hossan also directed the home secretary to submit the probe report before it by February 2.
Petitioner's counsel Manzill Murshid yesterday told the court a judicial inquiry commission formed by the government had submitted a probe report on the attacks on the then opposition Awami League supporters, particularly the minority communities, to the home ministry in 2011.
But the report is yet to be made public, he told the court.
He argued that his client could have taken legal steps against the perpetrators of the violence had the probe report been published.
If the culprits had been punished for the 2001 post-election violence, the incidents of attacks and atrocities on the Hindus would not have taken place after the 10th parliamentary polls held on January 5, Manzill added.
Earlier in 2009, the HC following a writ petition filed by the Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh (HRPB) directed the government to form an inquiry commission to probe into the 2001 post-election violence, and to take actions against the persons involved in the atrocities.
The commission formed by the government reportedly found that over 200 women belonging to minority communities were gang-raped allegedly by the then ruling BNP-Jamaat alliance activists in the 15 months after October 2001.
The barbaric act was intended to force them to leave the country. Their only fault was to cast vote for Awami League, according to the commission.
The commission mentioned over 3,625 incidents including 355 as politically motivated killings.
The remaining 3,270 were the incidents of rape, arson attack, and looting by the then ruling BNP-Jamaat men.
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