Holey Artisan: Can imposing stricter security laws make a Difference?
Terrorism is a direct violation of human rights. Crimes like these attack the basic principles of Rule of Law and threaten the life and tranquillity of citizens. In order to create panic or conveying their message, massive destruction is carried out leaving many dead or disabled for life. Most of these are targeted in public places. But terror attack in restaurants was the least anticipated up until the Paris Cafe Attack on November 2015 or as recent as a year ago, The Holey Artisan Bakery incident in Dhaka.
Affects of this kind of incident ignite the fear of going to the restaurants and to socialise. But is closing down restaurants a solution to this problem or creating national policies is one? If not putting an end to it, stricter laws on restaurant security may help prevent further occurrences.
A Hospitality Law of a country is deemed to cover safety of the guests of its Hotels and Restaurants. In Bangladesh, The Hotel and Restaurant Act 2014 was drafted in an attempt to legalise a 1982 Ordinance. Section 15 of the 2014 Act although talks about the eviction of guests ‘who are likely to endanger the person or life of any individual in the hotel or restaurant’ but says nothing about the security. We are talking about eviction at the entrance not after they are already seated. Restaurant guests must go through the same level of security checks as they experience in the airports.
The ‘Warm Welcome’ factor will disappear if restaurant guests are searched while entering the premises. Many would find it uncomfortable and choose to go somewhere else. It is highly likely that installing metal detectors or any security equipments of that sort at a restaurant would be ill matched. The last thing restaurant owners would want is to shoo away their customers. But they also do not want to be a party to a negligence suit. That same guest who may have felt uncomfortable due to the security checks may sue the authority for failing to take proper precautions in avoiding such a mishap. He may argue that the restaurant authority owed a duty towards him and provide enough security.
Nevertheless, the Holey Artisan incident was unforeseeable, at least until last year in Bangladesh. But the risk of terrorism in hotels and restaurants is ever increasing. Therefore to avoid liability or further recurrence, owners of the hotels and restaurants may demand stricter security guidelines. The Hotel and Restaurant Rules 2016 supplements the 2014 Act by adding few provisions. Section 11(2) of the 2016 Rules states that every hotel must have a register maintained by the manager where the particulars of the guest shall be recorded. Surprisingly, it focuses more on hotels than restaurants. The aforementioned Act simply increases the penalties for violating the law. It imposes a certain amount of fine or a term for license related issues. This however is not enough to prevent gross security breaches. What the Act needs is a strict guideline regarding security checks of guests while entering the premises of a Restaurant.
July 1, 2017 marks the first anniversary of the Holey Artisan Bakery tragedy. Twenty people, most of them foreigners, lost their lives on the hands of few terrorists. The victims rescued alive do not seem to come out of the trauma. That dreadful night has changed the perception of Dhaka dwellers permanently. More and more restaurants are opening around the city with little or no security checks. A general norm of full body checks must be started at the entrances of restaurants so that it does not appear unfamiliar anymore.
The writer is an apprentice lawyer, Dhaka Judge Court