Police reform must enable the force to function freely, fairly, justly, and independently.
The police reform debate seems to be attracting a wider and more serious audience.
It is time for discerning citizens to ponder over the factors and circumstances that have brought us to this precarious condition.
There is no denying that for a long time, the police have been used as a tool of repression in the subcontinent
The catch-all definition of national security must not be used as a cloak to hide abuses.
For police reform to be substantive, the first order of business should be the enactment of a new Police Act
The onus of ensuring malpractice-free management of the police force squarely rests with the police hierarchy.
According to media reports, more than a hundred lawyers of the apex court of Bangladesh have collectively filed a writ petition with the High Court, seeking its directive to the government to constitute an independent commission to investigate allegations of crimes committed by law enforcers.
For quite some time, a number of judicial initiatives of the Apex Court of Bangladesh pertaining to the protection of public interests and also to ensure the rule of law, thereby enhancing public trust in the supreme judiciary, has attracted admirable attention.
January 10, 1972, shall remain a historic milestone in the annals of Bangladesh’s political history because on this day the towering patriarch, fondly called Bangabandhu (Friend of Bengal) by ever grateful Bangalis, came home to his people after suffering nine months of illegal incarceration in Pakistani prison.
On November 20, the editor of The Daily Star Mahfuz Anam, in a column in this daily, urged for the transformation of the Bangladesh Police into a pro-people outfit.
In an article published on April 4, 2015, I wrote that “Attacks on Hindus and their property have demonstrated the immensely sad but blunt reality that even after 42 years of democratic pluralistic existence, the religious minority of Bangladesh have not been able to save themselves” (The Daily Star).
The brutal killings of four national leaders by misguided soldiers inside Dhaka Central Jail in the early hours of November 3, 1975, remain an indelible shame on the national psyche.
In the columns of this newspaper, an erudite professor highlighted the need to “at least start a dialogue” on reforming the police.
As the plight of Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslim minority numbering nearly 1.2 million stranded in Bangladesh crosses the third painful year, one is reminded of the most blighted ethnic minority in Asia.
The conviction of three police officers working in one of the police stations of Dhaka metropolitan area for a custodial death that occurred years ago should be a shining example in an otherwise murky environment.
Following the death of Major Sinha in circumstances indicative of collusive criminal behaviour of some apparently errant police personnel along with other delinquencies of lawmen elsewhere in the country, well-meaning citizens have expressed their apprehensions about control and accountability of our police or the lack of it.
