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The court granted 48 hours to the secretary of the Home Ministry, director general of the Rapid Action Battalion and the commander of the RAB-8 to explain the shooting and killing of two siblings, Lutfor Khalashi and Khairul Khalashi, on Monday in Madaripur district, while the two were in custody. The court also asked why the deaths should not be declared illegal.
Justice A.F.M. Abdur Rahman and Justice Emdadul Haque Azad of the High Court Division of the Supreme Court made this decision after reading newspaper reports on the deaths of the two brothers.
Like hundreds of similar stories of so-called “crossfire” killings, the story as told by the Rapid Action Battalion is very different from the version told by the Khalashi family.
On Saturday, Lutfor Khalashi’s wife Jharna Begum and son Bablu Khalashi declared at a press conference at the Madaripur Press Club that two of their family members – Lutfor and Khairul Khalashi – had been arrested by the RAB-3 from Narayanganj, a city adjacent to the capital of Dhaka. They expressed the fear that both persons might be killed under the pretext of “crossfire.”
At the press conference the wife and son appealed to authorities to hand over the detained men to the court for trial if any charges had been brought against them, instead of killing them in the name of “crossfire.” In reality, both men were killed in “shootouts” on the following morning in Madaripur, around 100 kilometers from the place of arrest.
The Rapid Action Battalion on Monday claimed that the twin brothers were killed in shootouts while a team of the paramilitary force was patrolling at Shirkhara area in Madaripur district early Monday morning. The force also claimed that the two deceased were members of an “extremist” group, the Purba Banglar Communist Party, a banned political party, and had several criminal cases against them. However, no details were provided in the media release circulated by the RAB-8.
Bangladesh’s Supreme Court is constitutionally empowered to issue suo motto rulings against any person or institution in possible violation of the law. However, this was the first ever such ruling on an extrajudicial killing, although there have been more than 1,000 such killings since 2002. The Supreme Court has been tolerating such killings for more than five years.
Home Minister Sahara Khatun, who is a lawyer by profession, did not attempt to defend the extrajudicial killings committed by law-enforcement agencies. Within a few hours of the High Court ruling she told the media that there had been no “crossfire” incidents since the Bangladesh Awami League took charge of the government in January this year.
In contrast to this claim, Hassan Mahmud Khandker – director general of the Rapid Action Battalion that has carried out extrajudicial “crossfire” and “encounter” killings since the inception of the paramilitary force in 2004 – admitted at a press briefing on Sept. 3 that 577 people had been killed in 472 such incidents at the hands of paramilitary force personnel between 2004 and August 2009.
When the head of the Rapid Action Battalion admits that his forces killed 577 people in “crossfire” incidents, the home minister’s claim sounds not only absurd but dangerous. Her responsibilities include controlling the law-enforcement agencies and holding accountable anyone who breaks the law.
Human rights groups have recorded at least 130 extrajudicial deaths in the 11 months since the Awami League came to power, refuting the claim of Sahara Khatun that no such killings had occurred in that period. Khatun has not only strengthened the ongoing culture of impunity for perpetrators of such crimes, but also promoted lawlessness in public. It is needless to mention that as home minister Khatun has utterly failed to initiate any credible investigation into allegations of extrajudicial killings.
As a politician, Khatun should have eyes to see the people’s problems and ears to hear their complaints. As a lawyer she should have respect for the rule of law. Denying the killings by law-enforcement forces will not solve the prevailing problem of lawlessness in Bangladesh.
In fact, extrajudicial killing is a national problem. It must be acknowledged, investigated in depth, and punitive measures put in place to end this practice. There should be a complaint mechanism open to all, a credible and capable investigations department, an efficient and permanent prosecution wing, protection for witnesses and the guarantee of a fair trial before a competent judiciary.
There must be thorough reforms of the policing and criminal justice systems, which are among the most corrupt and dysfunctional institutions in Bangladesh. But instead of initiating reforms, past and present governments have been playing the blame game and practicing the politics of denial. This is useless and represents a total lack of leadership from the country’s administrators.
The Awami League government is about to complete its first year in power. It is time to unburden the government of worthless ministers like Sahara Khatun. The Awami League cannot withdraw its election pledge to bring about the rule of law. Instead it should take this window of opportunity created by the court to acknowledge the existence of the problem of extrajudicial killings.
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(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 who has worked as a journalist and human rights activist in his country for more than a decade, and as editor of publications on human rights and socio-cultural issues.)
