For police reform to be substantive, the first order of business should be the enactment of a new Police Act
The question is one of making the bureaucracy more responsible and responsive.
It is imperative to bring the police under a system of accountability that earns public confidence.
On June 3, 1947, Lord Mountbatten, the last viceroy of India, announced his plan for the partition of the subcontinent—in particular that of Punjab and Bengal.
Of late, media reports that indicate that the infamous phenomenon of extrajudicial killings has been resorted to more by the mainstream police outfit than the elite unit of the law-enforcing apparatus should bring no comfort, and indeed should be viewed with concern.
The unfortunate fact of our times is that all reports on Bangladesh’s socio-economic progression almost invariably point to the lack of good governance as a significant deficit in our developmental strides.
The piece “No ‘crossfire’ deaths since US sanctions” published in this newspaper on January 11 will definitely engage all thinking minds, especially those entrusted with the maintenance of law and public order.
In recent times, there have been many discussions, discourses and deliberations on “muktijuddher chetona,” wherein passionate and eloquent speakers have emphasised the imperative of holding aloft the spirit of our great Liberation War.
In view of the grisly and gory attacks, allegedly state-sponsored, on the Rohingya Muslim minority of neighbouring Myanmar, it would not be out of place to take a serious look at the menacing face of the other kind of fundamentalism about which the international community has not been desirably vocal.
In a scenario where the police have not been able to adequately transform it and the political class of the country is not
For handcuffing, the nature of the accusation is not the criterion. In fact, the clear and present danger of escape or breaking out of police control is the determinant. For determining that there must be clear material record, not glib assumption, of reasons and wherever applicable judicial oversight and summary hearing and direction by the court.
Media reports have it that the Supreme Court has issued a 19 point guideline for police, magistrates and judges to stop arbitrary arrests on suspicion and torturing arrestees on remand.
Even the greatest cynic would agree that the attacks on the minority Hindu population and their properties and places of worship, though intermittent, have been a blight on the democratic and secular credentials of Bangladeshi polity.
The macabre assassination of four national leaders, revered as the founding fathers of our democratic republic, on November 3, 1975 shall continue to haunt the nation for a painfully long time.
While the prevalent wisdom seems to lay all the blame at the door of the politicians for most of our ills, if not all, this writer does not know how our discerning citizens have reacted to the indiscreet behaviour of a prime public servant of a prominent district who, on the eve of his departure on transfer, reportedly, attended 33 farewell receptions and accepted quite unabashedly expensive gifts including gold jewellery.
Readers may have read an introspective piece on 19th September under the caption 'The hanging of Mir Quasem Ali'. It was indeed
The mode of operation and determination of the terrorist executors coupled with the savagery that surfaced during the recent
