Bangladesh needs fundamental reforms of law enforcement

The US ambassador to Bangladesh has made it clear that without concrete actions and accountability on Bangladesh's part, the US will not lift its sanctions on the Rapid Action Battalion (Rab). Since the sanctions were imposed on December 10, 2021, top officials of our government have been saying that they are working to have them lifted. On what basis was the government negotiating with the US? From news reports, it appears that so far, we have taken a PR approach to this problem, rather than a substantive one.

Following the statements made by US government officials after the sanctions—and even before the sanctions were imposed—we have been highlighting the need to reform Rab. While the media has commended Rab for its performance in fighting terrorism, questions of human rights violations have also been raised repeatedly. And we have mentioned many times the importance of looking into these questions and answering them, rather than brushing them aside. Unfortunately, the government did not give enough importance to such recommendations.

The message from the US is clear. Instead of dilly-dallying with reforms and making requests here and there, the government should get into the serious business of reforming Rab, as well as all law enforcement agencies against whom allegations of violating the constitutional rights of the people have been raised. The time is more than right for there to be a fundamental reform of our law enforcement agencies and their operational methods. We have to reform the culture of taking people for remand and basically exposing them to physical and mental torture. We have to reform how political interests meddle in the way these vital institutions are run.

The law enforcement agencies in Bangladesh need to modernise their investigating methods. Instead of relying too much on remand, they should be trained to collect forensic evidence and follow other modern investigation procedures. Fair and independent investigations into allegations of various irregularities by the law enforcers is are must-haves. Recently, we have seen incidents of custodial deaths resurface again. Last week, we saw how the prime accused in a journalist murder case was killed in a "gunfight" with Rab in Cumilla. We have to have a mechanism through which such extrajudicial incidents are properly looked into and prevented for good. Ensuring accountability at every step of the way is thus vital.