Craving for a trustworthy policing system
Death by crossfire
Khandakar Md. Abul Khair is a retired officer of Bangladesh Biman and he has been living in Dhaka's one of the densely populated neighbourhoods of Mohammadpur for more than a decade. After three daughters, the Bhuiyan couple were blessed with a son, and named him Khandakar Iqbal Hussain, alias Masum. They had another son after Masum, but the elder son was always very special one to them.
The 8th July, 2005 was a black day for Mr Khair's family. Whimpering on and on, Mr. Bhuiyan described the incidents of that night. On that night, he with his family went to attend a programme in a nearby Community Centre close to Asad Gate. After the dinner, at around 10 pm Masum received a call on his mobile and went outside telling his parents that he will be back soon. As Masum did not return in next hour, his father started calling on his son's mobile and came out through the gate. But there was no trace of Masum. His mobile was also silent. After a long and anxious wait throughout the night, Mr Bhuiyan was watching the news next morning at 7 o'clock on a television channel. And that was the news he wished he never had to see. Seeing a pair of familiar sandals on the feet of a dead body of an unknown youth at the Dhaka Medical morgue they recognised their son.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. The Detective Branch of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police gave its own version of the events leading unto the tragic death of Masum. Mizanur Rahman, the Commissioner of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, told the BBC that his force were following up a specific case against Masum and when they tried to arrest him gunshots were fired at the police and he died in a crossfire.
Masum's father rejected the version of events given by the police and argued that his innocent son had been murdered and police issued a concocted story to the media.
Mr Bhuyian asserted that there was not a single case or even a GD (general diary) against his son in any of the 28 police stations of Dhaka. In his words, "not only they cold-bloodedly shot and killed my child, they are now defaming him as a terrorist and pretending that it was an incident of crossfire".
None of the neighbours agree with the police statement. They knew Masum as a quiet and good natured boy. Kazi Mahmudul Haq, the principal of the Lalmatia Housing Society School and College, where Masum went to study, knew Masum personally . Mr Haq told me that Masum was not involved with politics or any other affairs of the neighbourhood. Masum was a meritorious student and got GPA-5 in the secondary examination. Shocked at the brutal killing of one of his favourite students, Principal Haque asked how police could do something so inappropriate. He said, "No human being should be killed in this way. Masum could have one day come out as a civil servant or a teacher, if not the President of the country."
Demanding justice, when the bereaved father went to file a case to the police station in Mohammadpur, his request was denied. The officer in-charge refused to accept his case without giving any reason. Finally, Mr Bhuiyan went to the court and the court ordered an investigation into the events leading to his son's death.
Figures compiled by one of the country's leading human rights group 'Ain O Shalish Kendra' shows that while 57 people were killed by the police in so-called crossfire in the entire year of 2004, the death toll by crossfire in 2005 up to August has already passed 197. Despite, popular belief that the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) is responsible for most of the crossfire incidents, the statistics show that the police are now miles ahead of them. (The ratio is more than 1:3).
Misappropriation of power
About two hundred and fifty km north of Dhaka a marshland called Ghugudoho Beel in the district of Pabna is best known for a successful uprising by the landless farmers. About thirty thousand landless people of Ghugudoho Beel through that uprising recovered khash [owned by the government] lands from Jotdars [land grabbers in rural areas] and the government subsequently leased those lands to them. They have all kinds of experiences with the police force. In the village of Bishnupur, in Santhia Upazilla, I came across with a landless farmer. Md. Akkas recounted his memories, "In the past, we could not even go to police. They were supporting the Jotdars. But, now we do not need to hide away."
Another farmer living in the same area, Abdul Wahab told me that in the past, police had been collaborating with the extremist called Sharbaharas. But, following mass outrage, the RAB started taking actions and the disturbance by so-called Sharbahara has stopped.
Bishnupur is not a unique place in the country. Allegations of connivance of police with criminals are rampant in the country regardless of rural or urban character of the areas. And the commonly heard complaints against the police force are abuse of power, extortion, harassment, and corruption.
Why police engage themselves in corrupt practices
Whenever, the media exposes incidents of crime or corruption involving police, high officials say it was an isolated event and does not necessarily reflect the state of the force as a whole. But, closer scrutiny of the operations of the force reveals that there are too many slippery slopes for every member of the police force to become corrupt or abusive of his identity. A number of police officers told me, on condition of anonymity, that they have too many duties bestowed upon them without any financial allocation. And that is the reason they resort to collect money from alternative sources. I met a constable working in the detective branch in one of the south-western districts, hereby referred as Ajmal Hossain (his real name concealed to protect his identity) has been working in the force for last 18 years. He told me that if they find an unidentified dead body then they have to pay from their own pocket to carry out its post-mortem and burial with required last rituals according to victim's faith. He says there is no other way to pay these expenses except seeking contributions from businessmen or the rich.
About 18 months ago, constable Hossain was transferred to his current posting from an eastern district and it cost him Tk 8000 to come to his new location along with his four family members. But recently his department paid him Tk 3012 to settle his expenses' claim. The police headquarters told him that he was not entitled to claim fares for hiring a truck. His monthly salary is Tk 5672 and he told me that his debts are getting larger as he was trying to live an honest life.
I also met the Superintendent of Police (SP) of the same district who, also speaking anonymously, admitted that there was no financial allocation for transportation of a dead body to a morgue or carry out a post-mortem examination and making arrangement for a funeral.
When police picks up a person, the law says his wellbeing is the responsibility of the authority who took him in custody, but the allocation for such detainees is only three taka per head per day. The SP told me that while someone is placed under police remand by a court the responsibility of arranging his/her meal lies with another agency. But, according to him, in his service life spanning two decades, he never saw that it was carried out from that allocation.
Regarding the infrastructure for policing, the SP said, none of the police stations in his district has enough vehicles. But, due to huge number of protocol duties his office has an outstanding fuel bill amounting to sixty lakh taka.
In the said district I saw two four-storied buildings in the police line which accommodate approximately four to five hundred members of the force. But none of the two barracks had a single ceiling fan though the temperature during last summer in the district reached 42 degree Celcius.
Why the pace of reform is so sloth
Everyone agrees that to establish the rule of law, the country needs an efficient, professional and honest police force. Since the independence, we heard of several initiatives to bring reforms in the police force. A Police Commission was also established. But, the report of the commission was not even submitted to the parliament.
The state minister for home affairs, Lutfuzzaman Babar, however, says that for the first time his government has taken steps to modernise the police force. But, according to him, reform is a time consuming exercise. He said that though in the past , none of the police stations had any fund available to them , his government has recently started allocating money to police stations to meet emergency local requirements.
Mr Babar also said that, besides establishing an elite force -- Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) -- the government has recruited more than fifteen thousands new members for the force. He told BBC that new arms have been bought for all of the approximately one hundred and twenty-five thousand members of the force. He said that the government has also bought seventeen hundred new vehicles for the police and allocated about three hundred crore taka for building new accommodation for officers.
Experts, however, say ensuring accountability at all levels within the force is another crucial area which needs attention. They say that sometimes it seems that the members of the force are more eager to show their personal allegiance to people in power, instead of the law or the system. Many of these experts, citing increasing number of casualties claimed to be victims of crossfire and custodial deaths, expressed their worries that the police force is about to become a trigger-happy force.
Discounting such worries Mr Babar said that no such death under custody is acceptable to the government and a system of departmental investigation was in place in the country.
The system of departmental investigations, however, is unable to satisfy the families of victims like Masum. Also, none of the human rights activists think that such a system is fair where the accused, the prosecutor and the judge -- all belong to the same force. They argue, that if a transparent and acceptable procedure to deal with such complaints are not ensured police will remain beyond the reach of the law. And it will never be helpful for the establishment of the rule of law.