Extrajudicial killings in Bangladesh..

One of the most common feature of the daily newspapers in Bangladesh is that most of the leading news will be either bad or sad or both for the citizen of the country. Extra judicial killing is one of the commonest and horrible news for all readers since last 10 years when a new law enforcing authority named Rapid action battalion (RAB) was deployed in order to reduce the terrorism in the country. It was formed on 26 March 2004 and started its operations from 14 April 2004. Additional Inspector General of Police Anwarul Iqbal is the founding Director General of this elite unit. Although the RAB has been successful in apprehending several high-profile terrorists, Amnesty International has criticised the RAB's lack of accountability as it has been responsible for several deaths which have been attributed to crossfire. There have also been many reports of torture.
(more information on: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapid_Action_Battalion )

Before the national election of 2008 the political party named Awami league (which is now in government) highly criticised the party was in power then (bangladesh national party) for forming a law enforcing source as RAB and their activities like extra judicial killings and torture. Awami league also put this issue in their election manifesto and promised to end extrajudicial killings. However, recently the State Minister for Home Affairs and the Prime Minister of Bangladesh had openly supported the extrajudicial killings, despite the fact that Bangladesh signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention Against Torture. An eminent human rights activist Sultana Kamal, executive director of Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK), a leading human rights organisation in Bangladesh said that "Unfortunately, we don’t see any visible move to end extrajudicial killings,". Instead, government ministers are even trying to justify the killings, she added. "The government could easily stop such deaths if it had the will". Another well-reputed human rights organisation in Bangladesh, Odhikar, along with ASK and some international groups, has repeatedly asked the government to stop the extrajudicial killings.According to Odhikar, as of November 2009, there have been a total of 1,462 cases of extrajudicial killings in Bangladesh since June 24, 2004, when the first such case was reported. At least 141 extrajudicial killings were perpetrated from January to November 2009, of which 120 were called "crossfire" killings, said Odhikar. Some 17 people were tortured to death in custody and four others were shot dead during violent clashes such as factory unrests.At a recent press conference at the RAB headquarters in Dhaka, the battalion’s director general, Hasan Mahmud Khandaker, defended the killings, which he said were "lawful" and that the battalion members were compelled to open fire in self-defence. However, this justification is not enough to justify these killings as all the killings occurs with the same plot of story of gunfight and the terrorist killed in thr crossfire.
(more information on: http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50053)

The government of Bangladesh has been violating the constitution and Universal Declaration of Human Rights since 2004. According to Art. 35(5) of the constitution of Bangladesh and Art. 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” And according to Art. 3 of the constitution of Bangladesh, “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.” But, in practice, Bangladesh does not ensure the right to life and has not complied with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the constitution of Bangladesh.It also appears that state institutions such as the judiciary, the rule of law, regulations, the constitution and the national assembly have been disabled. The media’s role regarding extrajudicial killings is not sufficient because it had a duty to motivate people againgst these sort of killings. The media has only been publishing the normal reports about these encounters filed by the RAB or the police themselves which is disappointing.
(more information on: http://www.extrajudicialkilling.info/2010/02/rab-is-another-black-chapter-for.html)

At a recent discussion forum in Dhaka, Supreme Court Justice Nozrul Islam said the extrajudicial killings remained a deep concern for the judiciary and that it was "suicidal" for society and the country as a whole to let the law enforcement agencies decide who should be killed on criminal charges.  Moreover, the New York-based Human Rights Watch said the Bangladesh government should take urgent action to end impunity for the perpetrators of the human rights abuses in the country and to uphold the rule of law. "As a party to the U.N. (United Nations) human rights conventions, Bangladesh is obliged to ensure that all violations are investigated, and that those responsible are brought to justice," said Brad Adams, executive director of Human Rights Watch's Asia Division, in a statement.
( more information on: http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50053 )

Finally, as a legal persons we should ask ourselves that is it justifiable at all to punish anybody without any proof by the court of law? Otherwise, it will be an insult for the rule of law if the extra judicial killings continue in a same manner.