Font size: 
Compare this story of a "divine miracle" with a "manmade miracle" that has appeared in Bangladesh. The media in 2006 came to know that there were 14 children living in the house of former Deputy Inspector General Anisur Rahman, seven of them between 18 and 24 months of age. Rahman and his wife, Anowara Rahman, both claimed that Anowara had given birth to septuplets – four boys and three girls – and all were born in their residence in Dhaka.
It was a big surprise for the people, especially medical professionals, to read that one woman had given birth to seven babies at home. There was no official record to document this, but the local media were very interested in this case. They wanted to know how, when and under whose supervision the children were born and how the family managed their overcrowded home.
Elina Khan, a human rights lawyer, expressed doubts about this case and lodged a complaint with the Badda police station in Dhaka in 2006, requesting the authorities to examine the DNA of the children and the parents to assert if the children were in fact their own.
In response, the couple attacked the media and rights activists for their excessive interest in the case. They refused to undergo tests to prove their parenthood.
Two human rights organizations then filed a petition with the High Court Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh. After a long legal battle – during which the "parents" refused to follow the court’s directions and the human rights groups insisted that they do so – the seven babies' DNA profiles were finally checked by order of the High Court. The results showed the seven children were not brothers and sisters.
Based on the findings, the court on Aug. 12 declared that Rahman and his wife were not the parents of the seven children. It ordered that the children, who were suffering from malnutrition, be placed in a home run by the concerned human rights organization.
Despite all the interest in this case, the media did not discuss the situation of the remaining seven children of the 14 originally found in the retired deputy inspector general’s home. Do they really belong to this couple? What is happening to them?
The legal battle relating to the "septuplets" may be the beginning of the exposure of a dark chapter in the activities of retired and current police officers in Bangladesh. If the former deputy inspector general and his wife are not the parents of the children, who are those children? How and why were they brought to the police officer's house? Is the couple trafficking in children, as many people suspect?
The barrage of questions must be aimed at the law enforcement agencies. Such a situation cannot develop overnight. A senior police officer enjoys fulltime government protection in his office and residence. The authorities, by providing security, make sure that their officers remain in a safe zone, for the sake of the police force and the nation.
The intelligence agencies, as their daily routine work, oversee this security situation, paying attention to who is going where and for what purpose. Now the question is, where were the intelligence agencies and the police when the former inspector and his wife were collecting all those babies? If the authorities are capable and competently carrying out their jobs, they should make known the truth behind the mysterious “septuplets.”
In cases of human rights violations – especially those involving torture in custody and extrajudicial killings – police officers always become "kind" to their colleagues and protect them to safeguard their jobs and livelihoods. If a criminal charge is brought against one of their colleagues, the investigators compromise the case with their friendly attitude to the perpetrator, instead of doing an impartial job.
If the investigator is a junior officer, he remains submissive to the accused senior police officer – whether the person is in service or retired – and will not dig deep in the interest of protecting the image of the force. Likewise, whenever a junior police officer – other than a simple constable – is accused of corruption or unlawful activities, the senior officers accept bribes to protect their juniors. This is normal practice in Bangladesh.
When charges are brought against non-commissioned and non-cadre personnel, departmental action will be taken in accordance with the rank and prestige of the accused, rather than the gravity of the crime. Thus, the whole force has established a common and callous trend of overlooking and patronizing the bad deeds of their own personnel. In other words, law-enforcement officers are constantly being given impunity.
Will this go on endlessly in Bangladesh? The authorities must begin impartial investigations to identify criminals among the current and former public servants, who hide behind their official positions to commit crimes.
--
(Rater Zonaki is the pseudonym of a human rights defender based in Hong Kong working at the Asian Human Rights Commission. He is a Bangladeshi national with a degree in literature from a university in Dhaka. He began his career as a journalist in 1990 and engaged in human rights activism at the grassroots level in his country for more than a decade. He also worked as an editor for publications on human rights and socio-cultural issues and contributed to other similar publications.)
