Govt yet to reply to HC ruling

Four months have elapsed and the government is yet to respond to the High Court's rule over legitimising the controversial criminal hunt called Operation Clean Heart.
During a hearing on a public interest litigation, the HC on July 29 issued the rule asking the government to explain within six weeks why the Joint Drive Indemnity Act, 2003 should not be declared unconstitutional.
The court also asked the authorities concerned to explain why they should not be directed to create a fund of Tk 100 crore to compensate victims of the operation.
By passing the law, parliament during the rule of the then BNP-Jamaat alliance had legitimised all the actions undertaken by the joint forces during the drive from October 16, 2002 to January 9, 2003.
The law provided legal indemnity to all those involved in the operation for any damage caused.
Officials concerned of the government including the secretaries to the ministries of law and home have been made respondents to the rule.
Asked about the delay, Deputy Attorney General Al Amin Sarker, who represented the government in this litigation, said his office did not receive any reply to the HC rule from the government officials concerned.
Secretary to the law and justice division in the law ministry ASSM Zahirul Haque said his office was yet to receive the copy of the HC rule.
Home Secretary CQK Mustaq Ahmed said he was not aware of the rule. He advised this correspondent to contact the law and planning wing in his ministry to know about the government's stance on the issue.
Shawkat Mostafa, and Smriti Rani Gharami, joint secretaries to the home ministry, expressed their ignorance about the HC rule.
Smriti, however, mentioned that they would give reply to the rule once the court fixes a date for holding the hearing on it.
ZI Khan Panna, a former chairman of the legal aid and human rights committee of Bangladesh Bar Council, had filed the writ petition with the HC. He said they will move the court next month for holding the hearing on the rule.
The litigant added that they were now collecting documents and evidence in support of the petition.
An investigation by The Daily Star found that around 24,023 army and 339 navy personnel along with the members of erstwhile BDR, police and ansar had joined the Operation Clean Heart.
As many as 44 people died in custody and hundreds sustained injuries following torture during the operation, triggering criticism for human rights violations.
The then government, however, put the death toll at only 12, saying all the victims died of heart attacks in hospitals after being handed over to police.
The joint forces arrested 11,245 people, including some 2,482 listed criminals, and recovered 2,028 firearms and 29,754 rounds of ammunition.
In the absence of a parliament session, the government first promulgated an indemnity ordinance on January 9, 2003, hours before the end of the operation.
The ordinance was signed into a law on February 24 the same year, drawing a lot of flak from a cross section of people, including eminent lawyers and rights activists.