Law opinion
Neither
RAB nor any other force can serve the purpose, unless…
Md.
Zahidul Islam
A
terrorist does not have any sense of justice. He does
not understand anything except what he does for his self-satisfaction
or self-interest. Anybody, irrespective of his character,
race or opinion, may fall into his pray and suffer hazards
that might lead to death. The way to remain secure and
protected from his violence is to nab him and hand over
to the law enforcing agencies or taking legal proceedings
against him. Unlike the shooting a mad dog away, we cannot
shoot a terrorist, however dangerous or harmful he be
for the society. A terrorist also, as a human being, possesses
the right to life. Moreover, he is a citizen of the country.
And as a citizen it is his fundamental right i.e. constitutional
right, given under Article 31 of the Constitution, to
enjoy the protection of the law, and to be treated in
accordance with law, and only in accordance with law.
Hence, we see no other alternative than taking the resort
of the judicature, which is expected to render justice
and thus keep healthy atmosphere in the society.
But
it seems that government is trying to improve law and
order situation overnight and venturing to ensure justice,
bypassing the judiciary. Earlier the so called clean heart
campaign and recently by Rapid Action Battalion (RAB),
Cheetah and Cobra, government is making efforts to eliminate
terrorism from society. But all these efforts are resulting
in some extra-judicial killings, which are opposed to
rule of law and cannot be supported.
It
is argued that what govt did by Operation Clean Heart
or what is now doing by RAB, Cheetah and Cobra are within
the purview of law; and it is neither a bypass of law
nor something new in the history of governance. Today's
economic giants like the Chinese and the South Korean
leaderships did not hesitate to take drastic actions against
petty thieves, muggers, robbers as well as even against
the greedy businessmen to get to where they are today.
Besides, if the concept of democracy means 'the greatest
good for the greatest numbers', these some accidental
killings should be well justified.
There
seems that the above-mentioned arguments have been accepted
by a portion of common public. The reason is obvious.
People hardly get satisfactory justice from the judiciary.
As a result, people are now very disappointed; day by
day they are loosing their faith over judiciary and are
being less interested in harbouring to the same. Conversely,
as a result of operations of joint drive forces, RAB,
Cheetah or Cobra, they find some immediate improvement
of law and order situation.
During
the Operation Clean Heart more than forty people were
reportedly killed (though those were explained as deaths
from heart attack) and in the ongoing operations by RAB
a good number of persons have succumbed to death in so-called
crossfire. But the common public do have little time to
think about the fundamental rights of those persons yielded
to death in those operations. What makes them happy is
that in those operations some criminals have been killed.
These criminals killed many innocent people, were involved
in drug and other unlawful business and extorted money
from business houses and individuals, causing damage to
national economic growth and development. They should
have been actually ruined in long before. But our regular
police administrations as well as courts seem failing
to capture them. Thank to RAB that it has destroyed them.
So this is excellent.
Okay,
this public attitude can be respected but should not be
appreciated. We know, the deaths (allegedly form heart
attack) of those people during the 'Operation Clean Heart'
were not properly investigated; kith and kin of those
victims were harassed and terrified when they went to
file cases in the police stations; and ultimately those
joint drive forces were indemnified. At present, the killings
during RAB's operations are being reported as killings
in crossfire. But so good number of killings in crossfire
normally arouses the question: have all those persons
got killed in crossfire? Or is this 'crossfire' a synonym
of 'heart attack' during Operation Clean Heart?
This
is such a question, which will never be answered. But
rule of law says there must be no rooms of vagueness and
ambiguity in the activities of the govt.
Another
thing, which we have experienced, is that the passed 'Operation
Clean Heart', however, improved the law and order situation
to a good extent. But, as soon as the joint drive forces
had gone back to the barracks, the law and order situation
recovered its old position as it was before the commencement
of the said operation. As per media reports, a good number
of top terrors managed successfully to escape the operation's
net, and they were threatening residing off the purview
of the operation. After the operation was over, they came
back in the scene, and restarted their destruction, brutality
and heinousness with new vigour, and, thus, made the law
and order situation worse than ever before. This time
also every prudent citizen can foresee that after RAB,
Cheetah and Cobra are withdrawn from scenes, the law and
order situation will retake its old shape. This is because
what is being done in the name of operations is 'not the
right way' to curb criminality.
Indeed,
keeping thousands of arrested lawbreakers and accused
under the police custody without trial, which is done
at times and was done during the Operation Clean Heart,
is like the caging of the mad dogs without treatment.
Like ways, killing of terrorists or criminals by RAB or
forces alike can never provide successful outcome. It
is necessary, at first, to find out who or which makes
a man terrorist or criminal, and then to try or treat
him. Otherwise, no trial or treatment will furnish desirable
result. It should not be forgot that everyone is born
innocently; some people or some circumstances make him
criminal; therefore, those some people should be punished,
or those some circumstances should be removed at first.
Here comes the question that who will do this job? Shall
we never get rid of these mad dog-like terrorists and
criminals?
The
answer of this question depends wholly on the politicians.
(Though the lower judiciary and the police administration
are reported to be two most corrupt institutions, these
corrupt ones can be easily purged if the politicians do
wish.). It becomes very natural and obvious that, those
terrorists are brought up by the politicians. And for
this an earnest commitment by the parties in power and
the opposition to eliminate crimes from their respective
folds is enough. But do our leaderships bother public
interest? As a matter of fact, we have experienced that
our leaderships are made of the same mould. No leaderships
actually have done anything for the public. Our transition
from autocratic govt to a democratic one has not in fact
changed anything. What all our politicians are doing is
just giving us lip services. All the political parties
are preaching for terror-free society, and blaming others
for patronising terrorism.
But
the fact that almost all the top terrors recently killed
in so called crossfire did maintain link with any of these
political parties confirms a message that all these political
parties are harbouring terrorism. Then it appears that
we, the voters and the mass people, do not have alternative
leadership to choose and improve thereby the law and order
situation of the land.
What,
therefore, we can do is to pray to the Almighty so that
he might gift our leaderships the benevolence, the true
will to actually do something for the oppressed countrymen!
The
author is a legal researcher currently working for ERGO
Legal Counsels, Dhaka.
