Police in Bangladesh have always been in the news for their incompetence, corruption and controversial roles. Newspapers on Monday published three pieces of news centering police that drew both attraction and ire of the citizens in general. All these three incidents are very significant as far as their role as a law enforcing agency is concerned.
Firstly, in what the audience in Bangladesh is accustomed to see in the so-called action films, two death row convicts were snatched from the hands of police from the Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Court premises on Sunday. Reportedly, only one policeman was walking four convicts to prison who were without fetters but handcuffed. It was broad midday light. As soon as they reached the gate of the court premises, the convicts turned on the policeman and hit him.
The convicts were quickly joined by the outsider who threw pepper spray on the constable’s face and he was blinded. Of the four, two convicts succeeded in escaping. The question has now been raised why only one police constable was in charge of the four convicts. It speaks of police ineptness. Since the convicts were militants, question has also been raised as to whether it was a deliberately arranged drama to distract public attention from the opposition’s successful political campaign against the government for quite some time.
In the second incident, a police outpost at Kalurghat in Chattogram was attacked by miscreants and successfully freed two criminals who were drug peddlers. Soon after their arrest by police, sister of one of the arrestees who is a transgender came to rescue her brother with her gang of other transgender persons. She got killed during the clash, but the two criminals succeeded in escaping.
The third incident was very serious and
occurred at Bancharampur in Brahmanbaria. A policeman allegedly shot at point-blank range and killed a Chhatra Dal activist, Rafiqul Islam Nayan, when he was distributing leaflets for the BNP’s Cumilla divisional rally with his fellow activists. The police sources claim that the constable killed Nayan as he was altercating with his OC as was seen in a video clip that went viral on social media. Though there was nothing that could be called a threat to his life there.
We have been telling that it is bad for the police and the people when police allow themselves to be politicised and serve the party in power. It cannot be denied that the role of the police has become seriously controversial. The police cannot take lightly their responsibility to serve and protect the people. If for altercation with a police officer one can be killed, how will we trust them for protecting our lives and properties? We also know how corruption has gone deep among the police.
