Commission needs help in investigation

Any judicial probe commission should have an independent investigation agency of its own to be able to prepare a comprehensive report, said head of the one-member judicial probe commission formed to investigate the August violence on the campus of Dhaka University.
"I feel quite helpless without an independent investigation agency attached to the commission," said Justice Habibur Rahman Khan, head of the commission, while talking to journalists yesterday at his Circuit House office.
Without having such investigation agency, the commission has to depend on other sources for information and the accounts of people given before it, added Justice Habib.
When asked why he did not demand such an agency for the commission he was heading, he said, "I can not demand something that is out of the provisions of law." However, "in the report, I will recommend attaching an independent investigation agencies with such commissions in the future."
About other limitations the commission came across, Justice Habib said although a large number of students took part in the August incidents, only a few of them came forward and gave their accounts to the commission.
As of yesterday, among the total 103 individuals who gave their accounts of the incidents to the commission, only about a dozen were students, said sources at the commission.
The chief of Counter Terrorism Bureau of Directorate General of Forces Intelligence yesterday came to the commission to exchange views, Justice Habib added saying that the commission has plans to get the account of the driver of the army car that caught fire during agitation near Shahbagh in the city.
Thanking all quarters for their cooperation, Justice Habib said, "Given the limitations, the commission will submit its report."
Following the commission's appeal to the government, the deadline for submitting its report has been extended again, for the third time, to November 5.