Legal manoeuvring cannot hide ugly truths
The manner in which the government has dealt with the whole issue of the six coordinators of quota reform protests has legal malpractice written all over it. The six were finally released on Thursday afternoon, after nearly a week since being picked up between last Friday and Sunday. All through this period, top law and police officers defended it by using words that seemed carefully scripted. Even on Thursday, the law minister claimed that the six were kept in custody for their own safety, and that it was they who had sought protection. But no one is buying it anymore. Legal experts say the safety claim, putting the onus on the students, is but a cover for what was actually an abduction, which is illegal and unconstitutional. Citing the Appellate Division's guidelines, they said any detainee must be produced before court within 24 hours, which was not done in this case.
We have seen a similar legal manoeuvring in the case of the teenager detained in connection with the death of student protester Abu Sayed. The 16-year-old, Alfi Shahriar Mahim, was apparently not even present at the site of the killing. But police still arrested him for murder, leading to him being held in Rangpur jail for 13 days. The manner in which police handled the whole issue—from bringing false charges against a minor to inflating his age in case documents to preparing a First Information Report (FIR) that totally contradicted with independently verified footages of police repeatedly shooting Abu Sayed, despite the victim posing no threat—is unacceptable on multiple fronts. It indicates that law enforcers may go to any lengths to cover their tracks and absolve themselves of any responsibility for the killings that occurred since July 16.
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Shahriar Mahim has now been released on bail. But his trouble is not over, as he hasn't been cleared of the charges against him. Elsewhere, two of the freed six—who reportedly went on a two-day hunger strike leading to their release—have busted the myth of police hospitality and protection, confirming that state officials were lying through their teeth all along. Soon their Facebook accounts have disappeared. Is anyone surprised at this stage?
But what does their plight tell us about the reliability of law enforcement officials in charge of investigations? What does it say about the nearly 11,000 people arrested or the 673 cases filed across the country over the last 14 days? These mass arrests and the tenuous legal justifications provided for them make a mockery of our justice system. They also show that, despite recent government claims about being open to a fair and thorough investigation into the killings of so many people in quota-related clashes, the authorities are still unwilling to pursue accountability where it is most needed: its own security forces.
This has to stop. Legal manoeuvring can no longer hide ugly truths or delude citizens. While we want accountability for the destruction and damage caused to public infrastructure, we believe the investigative focus should singularly be on establishing accountability for those tragic deaths at the moment. And the higher authorities must prove their sincerity by immediately stopping the pointless mass arrests, releasing all victims of legal harassment, especially students and political activists, and aid rather than obstruct in the process of investigating the role of security forces during the violent events of July 16-21.
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