Court Correspondent :
The High Court on Thursday issued a rule asking the government to explain why they should not be ordered to probe the deaths of children during the mass protests through an international commission. The court fixed September 5 as the date for hearing the rule.
The bench of Justice Sheikh Hassan Arif and Justice Md Bazlur Rahman came up with the rule following a writ petition filed by Supreme Court lawyer Taimur Alam Khandaker, seeking necessary directives about the issue.
He submitted the petition as public interest litigation, saying that innocent minors suffered bullet injuries while they were at home or near their homes, and that the state and its law enforcement agencies could not protect their lives.
The petition cited Article 32 of the Constitution, which states, “No person shall be deprived of life or personal liberty save in accordance with law.”
Advocate Taimur Alam Khandaker himself move the petition while Attorney General Md Asaduzzaman and Deputy Attorney General Redwan Ahmed Runjib represented the state during hearing.
Meanwhile, one more murder case was filed against former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and 15 others over the death of a 12-year-old schoolboy in Mohammadpur area during the quota protests on July 19.
Abdullah Abu Sayeed Bhuiyan, a resident of Tejgaon, on Thursday filed the case with the court of Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Rajesh Chowdhury over the death of schoolboy Jobayed Hossain Imon in police firing in the capital’s Mohammadpur area.
This is the fifth case, and the third murder case, filed against Hasina after she resigned and fled to India amid a mass upsurge on August 5.
Other accused people are- Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader, former ministers — Asaduzzaman Khan, Anisul Huq, Tajul Islam, Jahangir Kabir Nanak, Hasan Mahmud and Mohammad A Arafat; former Private Industry Affairs Adviser to former Prime Minister Salman F Rahman and former lawmaker Mostofa Jalal Mohiuddin, former Inspector General of Police Chowdhury Abdullah Al Mamun, RAB’s former DG Harun Or Rashid, former DMP Commissioner Habibur Rahman, former Additional IGP Kh Mahid Uddin, former DB (DMP) Chief Harun Or Rashid and former DMP Joint Commissioner Biplob Kumar Sarker.