Pilkhana – one year on


Photo: The daily star

Shaheen Islam, a UV regular who was born and raised in Dhaka, wrote this in today’s Daily Star.

AN unexpected burst of violence engulfed Dhaka a year ago. Of all the events in the past decade that have caused collective grief to this city and damaged its social fabric — serial bomb blasts, violent strikes, logi-boitha, the Dhaka University student-military face-off — this was the worst. Make no mistake about that.

I will not — I emphasise, not — attempt to explore the root causes, deep conspiracies and national/international forces behind the BDR mutiny. Nor will I discuss the question that has joined the other great what ifs in our history: whether negotiations on the first day, instead of the military solution, were a mistake or not. I am sure the discerning reader will find enough in the media about those. Rather, even though it still feels too early to do anything other than grieve the 57 army officers and 18 civilians who died, I want to use this anniversary to think a bit about what it means to be safe in this city of ours.

An earlier version of this is over the fold. Read more…

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UV_Admin, February 25th 2010 | Tags:
Posted in Army, Crisis Management, Extra Judicial Killing, Media, torture

The coup that dared not speak its name

Thirty five years ago today, Bangladesh’s first experiment with democracy came to an end through the imposition of one party rule.  It took 16 years, several assassinations, coups, countercoups, and popular uprisings before  the second democratic experiment started.  That experiment came to an abrupt halt on 11 January 2007.  Fortunately, this time round, unrepresentative rule didn’t last long.  Today marks the first anniversary of the 7th representative parliament.    

The third anniversary of 1/11 got overshadowed by the Prime Minister’s trip to India.  Fortunately, regular UV pariticipant Tacit has written a series for Mukti, looking back at the coup that dared not speak its name (to borrow the Economist’s words).

Read more…

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UV_Admin, January 25th 2010 | Posted in Awami League, BNP, Business, Democracy, Election, Extra Judicial Killing, History, army brutality, reform, torture

A Judge and two Ministers

A new Chief Justice has just sworn in. Justice Tofazzal Hossain took oath yesterday but will be at the helm of nations Judiciary for a relatively short term. Future will decide how well he served his role as nations chief judge. However, his promotion clearly breaches a promise made to the nation by this government. Criticizing previous BNP government for manipulation and politicization of judiciary, the current ruling party made a promise to the nation to stop any further manipulation and politicization of judiciary.

As we continue to see the glorious role being played by the high court judges in upholding human rights and rule of law, we also see the ever growing urge in ruling party to see a subservient judiciary.

Justice Tofazzal Hossain has been made chief Justice superseding Justice Fazlul Karim. The time honored tradition of promoting judges according to seniority has again been breached. Definitely the government has a standard which one has to fulfill before one is promoted to higher ranks.

Recent comments made by the full and half ministers for Law about a sitting judge reminds us of the standard government leadership expects.

Read more…

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rumi, December 24th 2009 | Posted in Bangladesh, Extra Judicial Killing, Human Rights, Judiciary

এই আয়েশা, সেই আয়েশা এবং একটি শরীয়া আইন

মাটির গর্তে বুক পর্যন্ত দাড়িয়ে থাকা ছোট্ট পাপী মেয়েটি ব্যাকুল হয়ে চিৎকার করে চলছিল “আমি আর বলবো না… আমি আর বলবো না… আমাকে মাফ করে দাও … আমি আর বলবো না…” সমাজকে নিষ্কলুষ আর পাপমুক্ত রাখতে বদ্ধপরিকর ধর্মপতিদের হাত থেকে তখন অবিরাম ছুটে আসছে পাথর… ছোট পাথর, বড় পাথর, গোল পাথর, এবড়ো-থেবড়ো পাথর… পাথরগুলো ছুটে যাচ্ছে মেয়েটার চোখ-মুখ-মাথা লক্ষ্য করে। একটা-দুটো বেয়াড়া পাথর অবশ্য টার্গেট মিস করছে, তাতে ছোট্ট পাপী মেয়েটির মরণক্ষণ সামান্য দীর্ঘায়িত হচ্ছে মাত্র। কিন্তু কষ্ট হচ্ছে ধর্মরক্ষকদের। তাদেরকে আবার নিচু হয়ে নতুন পাথর তুলে মেয়েটার মুখ নিশানা করে সবেগে ছুড়ে মারতে হচ্ছে! কী যন্ত্রনা! মাত্র তের বছরের একটা মেয়ের মরতে এতো সময় লাগবে কেন?

আলজাজিরার খবর অনুযায়ী সোমালিয়াবাসি মেয়েটার নাম আয়েশা। পুরো নাম আয়েশা ইব্রাহীম দুহুলো।ধরেই নেয়া যায় মুসলিম পরিবারে জন্ম নেয়া মেয়েটির নাম রাখা হয়েছিল আল্লাহর নবীর প্রিয়তম স্ত্রী আয়েশা (রা) এর নাম অনুসরণে। একদিন এই সোমালিয়াবাসি আয়েশা হেটে হেটে যাচ্ছিল মোগাদিসু নামক স্থানে তার দাদী বা নানীর বাসায় । পথিমধ্যে তিনজন লোক তাকে জোরপূর্বক … ওই ঘটনায় মেয়েটি স্বর্বস্ব: হারিয়েছিল এটা বলা ভুল হবে। কারন ওই ঘটনায় মেয়েটি জীবনাটাতো আর হারায়নি। মেয়েটি আসলে স্বর্বস্ব: হারিয়েছে যখন সে এই ঘটনার নালিশ জানাতে গিয়েছে কর্তৃপক্ষের কাছে।

Read more…

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Syeed, December 22nd 2009 | Posted in Extra Judicial Killing, Human Rights, Religion

Cross fire – Govt faces heat of the court

Human Rights organizations ASK and BLAST turns up the heat on cross fire killings.

HC to get 1,057 ‘crossfire’ record
2 rights bodies ready for submission at hearing today

Over 1,000 people have been killed in law enforcers’ custody in the names of “crossfire”, “encounter” or “gunfight” in violation of human rights since formation of Rapid Action Battalion in 2004, the country’s two leading human rights organisations said yesterday.

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UV_Admin, December 21st 2009 | Tags:
Posted in Extra Judicial Killing

How do you stop crossfire?

On 17 November, the High Court asked the government and Rapid Action Battalion to explain, within 48 hours, the shooting and killing of two brothers in Madaripur, asking why the deaths should not be ruled extra-judicial (details).  Responding to this, the Home Minister said, ‘We are not carrying out any crossfire right now. No such incident took place since our government assumed office’ (details).   

We note that the 48 hours expired on the 19th, the day when ‘rule of law’ supposedly returned because the Appellate Court upheld death penalties for the convicts of the 15 Aug massacre.  We hope that Bangladesh started its journey towards the rule of law with the verdict (it was not a closure), but a state that summarily executes its citizens is not one where there is rule of law.  Shada Kalo is kind enough to not call the Home Minister a liar.   We believe Awami League is in violation of its election pledge.

This blog, and our parent organization Drishtipat, is unequivocally opposed to extra judicial killing (whether called crossfire, gun fight, or something else).   However, there is a legitimate debate to be had over how we can stop them.  Over the fold is a conversation among some UV bloggers.  We would be interested in your opinion.

Read more…

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UV_Admin, November 27th 2009 | Posted in Extra Judicial Killing, Human Rights, Judiciary

On the law and order issue

The first, and so far only, opinion poll on the performance of Bangladesh’s current government’s performance found law and order to be the area of its greatest weakness. That was in April. Casual observation of the media — newspapers as well as TV news and talk shows — suggest the law and order has slided a lot further in the months since. Anecdotal evidence from friends and family support the view. Syeed Ahamed puts it this way:

Such social disorder contradicts the whole purpose of having a national government. Citizens elect a group of persons among themselves as the government of the country so that law and order is maintained. It is perceived as a “social contract” between the people and the government, implying that the people give up some rights to the government in order to receive social order. Most historical accounts suggest this as the reason of establishing states and affirm that the principal task of the government is to maintain law and order. Issues such as taxation, budget, development works, and poverty reduction came much later as other government duties.

And the government’s reaction — return of the ‘crossfire’ under a new name — suggests that it is taking the problem seriously.

When one starts thinking about the issue, the following points/questions stand out:

1. Crossfires aka encounters aka gunfights aka extrajudicial killings are clear violation of Awami League’s election pledge.

2. It’s not even clear that we have a violent crimes problem that require such drastic measures.

3. The real law and order problem has no quick fix.

(More at Mukti)

10 Comments

jyoti, September 29th 2009 | Posted in Extra Judicial Killing, Life is Precious, Security, Society

কাঁটা তারের বেড়া

Once upon a time, it was Bangladesh that wanted to erect restrictions on travel to and from India. In 1972, Bangladesh was adamant that the two country should have a visa system between them. Back then, Bengali Muslim majority of the country feared that Hindus who migrated around partition would return en masse. That wasn’t the only worry about India. In the 1970s, most educated Bangladeshi feared an Indian takeover.

 

How things have changed. In last year’s election, the centre-right BNP campaigned on ’saving the country’ from, among other things, Indian takeover. Election results clearly showed, in the words of my friend Zafar Sobhan of Forum, that dog didn’t bite. Bangladeshis are no longer that paranoid about India.

Across the border, things are probably different. I say probably because I am not familiar with the Indian zeitgeist, and could be misreading things.

But I say different when I read this statistic: each year, nearly 100 Bangladeshi nationals are killed by the Indian Border Security Forces (they kill a similar number of their own people along the border. I say different when I watch a news report like this. I say different because I see no discussion of this in the mainstream Indian media. I say different because I see fingers pointed at alleged Bangladeshi connection when there is a terrorist incidence in India.

(More at Mukti)

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jyoti, August 13th 2009 | Posted in Extra Judicial Killing, Human Rights, India, Migrant workers

RAB, Version 2.0

“Besides, there will be two more wings under the terror intelligence and analysis division–coordination and external affairs wing and counter intelligence wing.”

Sunday, July 12, 2009
Special police unit mulled to combat terrorism, militancy
3,125-strong technology-based unit; proposal sent to PMO
Shariful Islam
Read more…

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khujeci_tomai, July 13th 2009 | Posted in Extra Judicial Killing, Human Rights

Latest RAB deaths and a few questions

It was just like another day.  Woke up in the morning and heard the story in TV about two muggers getting killed in the middle of the night by RAB in an ‘encounter’.  They tried to flee and they were shot at from the back.   Yea, this is the kind of justice a fellow blogger referred to as the quick justice.  But what is different about these two deaths than the other deaths that have been cheered by a lot of people in the name of ‘keeping peace’ in Bangladesh.  

In the TV reporting on these two deaths, they showed the car that was found and on the back of the car there was a book titled:  ’Measuring Electormagnetic Power’.  A hijacker thug studying English books on electromagnetic power seemed a strange one.   Lo and behold, it turns out that these two ‘muggers’ are actually students and quite good ones as well.  Co-students have said they had spotless records and they always had top ranks in the class.   There was no case on them in the thana either..  So what really happened?   Read more…

12 Comments

Asif, May 29th 2009 | Posted in Extra Judicial Killing
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