Limon tragedy goes on
High level intervention needed
A hapless victim of the use of arbitrary power by the law-enforcers, the teenage boy Limon has now landed in jail. The police have deprived the boy of a complete course of treatment of his amputated leg in order to produce him in a Jhalakathi court for hearing in an arms case. He was undergoing treatment at the orthopaedic Pangu Hospital in Dhaka after being shot in the leg by members of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) near his home in Jhalakathi.
It was a double jeopardy for Limon and his family members. The Pangu Hospital authority released him though he was still recovering.
Even the request from the chairman of the National Human Right Commission to keep the victim under treatment for some more days could not prevail upon the hospital authority.
This is how a victim of mistake by law-enforcers has now been subjected to further torture, apparently because the boy's father had sued the members of RAB for crippling his son.
This is not only an inexcusable wrong done to an innocent boy from a poor household, but also an instance of gross human rights violation. It would be worthwhile to note here that the RAB is already under scrutiny by the local as well international human rights watch bodies, the civil society and the media for their records in extra-judicial killings.
Manifestly, this is a reprehensible attempt by the police at covering up the grave offence of wrongly shooting college student Limon by indicting him in a trumped-up criminal charge.
Unfortunately, the home minister washed her hands of the matter by saying it is before the court.
Seemingly, the police, in connivance with the higher authorities are bent upon protecting themselves at the expense of a poor, unsuspecting citizen's career and life.
In this situation nothing short of the intervention from the highest authority can save Limon and his family from further tragedy.
Gatekeepers as poachers?
A new low in police behaviour
Five policemen were confined by angry villagers while fleeing after allegedly committing a robbery at a house in Ghasiara village in the early hours of Tuesday at Kaharol upazila in Dinajpur. In the mayhem that followed, mob set aflame the vehicle which carried the policemen, besieged the police rescue team and assaulted the DC. Such was the backlash.
The captured cops, including the OC of Kaharol police station, were later rescued by a team of Rab and BGB. Seven policemen were suspended and the ASP closed along with 18 constables of the Birganj upazilla.
If the law enforcers, in whom we repose our trust and count on them for security, turn out to be the law breakers themselves, public trust in their institution naturally erodes. This brings the people and the police on a confrontational course. For all we know this is not quite an isolated incident because policemen were sometimes picked up indulging in offences.
It is also a reflection of the declining law and order situation especially in the rural areas where people's hearths and homes are susceptible to crimes. And there's the regular complaint against police highhandedness at rural police stations. Villagers are sometimes denied of their basic rights to lodge complaints with the police. It is still a colonial ambiance in many places, where police acts more like a master. This must change.
We strongly urge the concerned authorities to embark on a serious investigation into the whole matter and mete out punishments to the perpetrators. We also like to point out that the hapless villagers should not be harassed by the police through instituting false cases en masse against them.
Just as police need to learn how to control mob so also the public should not take law into their own hands.
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