When convicts are free, justice is captive

Zubair Ahmed, a final year English student at Jahangirnagar University, died succumbing to his injuries after being severely tortured the day before. Five years since his death, four of his killers are still roaming free today. Four of them had fled a Dhaka court dock on February 23, 2015, after their bail was denied. The other, never showed up to court and has remained on the run ever since.

Despite the case being very high profile as it was the first time a court awarded capital punishment to anyone over any murder committed on the campus of a public university, the killers that are on the run seem to be completely stress free, posting pictures of themselves on Facebook and updating their statuses too. One of the killers for example, only a few months back posted on his Facebook wall, “I am a free bird… Now I can fly…”.

How did he get the audacity to do something like that being such a high profile killer? Meanwhile, group photos uploaded by one of the fugitives on Facebook and Instagram show four of them hanging out together in Malaysia. So the question is, how did these three highly sought after killers, after escaping from a court dock, manage to leave the country for Malaysia without drawing the attention of law enforcers?

And how is it that they are so unafraid and confident of not having to face the consequences of what they did, as to be able to post pictures and information that can give away their location to law enforcers? Aren't they supposed to be fugitives on the run? Well, by the looks of their cyber activities, they don't seem to be on the run. They, in fact, seem quite eager to show their faces publicly.

In the meantime, according to some of their classmates, some of the other convicted killers were also seen to be roaming around freely in public. All of this combined begs one to ask, what is really going on with regards to the murder of Zubair Ahmed?

It is beyond comprehension that even after a speedy trial tribunal had handed out such exemplary punishment to some of the killers and had convicted the others too in a landmark ruling, that so many of the convicts are enjoying life and parading their ill gotten freedom in front of the world. Such blatant confidence can only be possible if these killers have some sort of powerful backing, acting as guarantor of their freedom?

Is it really possible that our law enforcement agencies are so incompetent and our justice delivery system so flawed that have allowed these killers to escape justice? These are questions that need to be asked. And they must be asked of law enforcers and of the state.

It is because of such horrendous examples of impunity of criminals that people have, over the years, lost so much faith in our entire justice dispensation system. It is because of cases like this that people feel unsafe, insecure, and sometimes hopeless when it comes to the state providing the justice that it is constitutionally obliged to do.

What excuses do law enforcers have for failing to apprehend Zubair's killer five years since his death? What answers does the state have for the numerous failings of its various apparatuses with regards to this entire episode? Do we, as citizens, not have the right to demand such answers?

The writer is a member of the Editorial team at The Daily Star.