What will happen to the police accused of indiscriminate shooting, piles of bodies, murder?

Anti-discrimination student movement

Sufi Ahmed, a college student, crawled to escape the police firing in front of Dhaka's Jatrabari police station on August 5, the day the government fell in Bangladesh. The student is guarding the affected police station with his friends after the uprising.

Showing a viral video on social media, Sufi identified himself as the crawling young man wearing a white T-shirt and black pants. He was shot in the leg. “The police were firing in unison there. It was a very terrible situation. I was dying. Many people think that I am dead. One dies beside me.”

There is no police in Jatrabari police station yet. On the afternoon of 5th August, Jatrabari police station was set on fire by angry students. At least six policemen were killed that day. After the student movement turned violent, information is available that most protesters and police died in Jatrabari in Dhaka.

Sufi Ahmed claimed that since there is no police, they are working to stop looting and robbery in the area. Local students and youths are in contact with the central coordinators of the anti-discrimination student movement and are performing various duties at the police station. “The police wants to conduct operations with us. We are like 30-35 people together with younger brothers and seniors forming a team. We are basically running police activities”.

This Sufi story of the student movement Jatrabari brings to the fore two contrasting situations of police in Bangladesh before and after the coup.

More than 650 unarmed people died in the indiscriminate firing by the law and order forces during the student movement. The complete number has not been given by the government yet. On the other hand, after the fall of the previous government, about 450 police stations were attacked, set on fire and vandalized in Bangladesh. Officially, 44 policemen were killed.

Even now, the police return to work, but are working in a state of severe mental degradation and a kind of fear. There is criticism that in the past all political parties in Bangladesh have used the police for their own interests. In the past decade and a half, the complaints of the common people against the police were the highest during the Awami League period.

There has been a strong demand for police reform so that in future the police cannot be used as a lathiall force by the ruling political party.

Experience of student leaders

Jahangirnagar University coordinator of the anti-discrimination student movement, Arif Sohel, was arrested and remanded in the last phase of the movement. He said that it should be ensured that the local people can be policed.

According to him, the British colonial structure is coming out and a new structure is needed which will actually be created to serve the people. “We think the police structure needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. From the police code to the manner in which it functions, its centralized structure must be dismantled and the police empowered locally. The second area we want to emphasize is the behavior of the police. Treatment of those who will be detained by the police, human rights are very important.”

Arif Sohel was arrested on July 8 during the student movement. After that, the family did not get any news about him for 48 hours. From the experience of detention and remand, Arif feels that jails should be tolerant and humane for the accused or those who will be arrested.

“We have to make sure that food, clothing and sleeping facilities are the same as for humans and not for keeping animals, which I have seen at present.”

Criticizing the behavior of the police during the student movement, Arif said, “My experience at that place is what I saw. People are being oppressed and tortured as they want. People are being harassed there in the name of interrogation. The policing system that violates human rights must be reformed. We feel that we have to dismantle the colonial structure and establish a new police code and a new policing system. This is our hope and aspiration”.

Demand for transparency in police activities

Many of the coordinators in the student movement are members of an organization founded in 2023 called Democratic Student Shakti. Akhtar Hossain, convener of Chhatra Shakti, was arrested on July 17 from Dhaka University. He was arrested twice before. Akhtar was saying that there is a need for reforms everywhere from police behavior to cases, arrests, remand procedures.

“The way police torture in the name of remand is very inhumane. I was tortured to such an extent that I could not kneel and pray for two or three weeks. The police must come out of these tortures.”

From his own experience, Akhtar said, the unfortunate thing is that after the arrest, the police do not inform the family in any way. “In 2021, when I saw some persons there in the DB garda without a case, they were detained in that garda for four to five days, and their families did not even know about it. But this thing made our families go through extreme harassment and helplessness”.

“Cells that are secret need to be brought out into the open. There will be no covert operations. The police force will run through transparency. And there will be no under missions. All activities should be clear, transparent, documented”.

Chhatra Shakti leader Akhtar Hossain said that the police has been monopolized for the past sixteen years to such an extent that it no longer exists as a separate state force. Police message to people was that Police League.

“We have seen in the last student movement how blatantly the police brutally oppressed the student crowd. Not only the shooting, but also the treatment of the dead body was not humane. These issues have greatly alienated the police from the public. In such a situation, there is a need for reshuffling in the police force from top to bottom”.

Police Commission in discussion

An Independent Police Commission is being talked about as part of the police reforms. Much work was done on a police reform proposal during the army-backed caretaker government in 2007 aimed at creating a people-friendly police force free from political influence. But later Awami League government did not implement it.

Even after the current interim government took charge, the issue of police commission has been discussed. However, Professor Omar Farooq, who has been involved in research on police reform and police service for a long time, said that only police commission will not solve everything.

“If you can't separate it from politicization, the commission won't work. In our country, there are Election Commission, Anti-Corruption Commission, Human Rights Commission, what is their role? If you don't make fundamental changes, just reforming two laws or making amendments will not achieve perfection.”

Maulana Bhasani University of Science and Technology, Chairman of Department of Crime and Police Science Professor Omar Farooq said.

“If there is democratic policing in Bangladesh then it is the real expectation of the people that it will be properly fulfilled. And the basic principles of democratic police are human dignity, respect, then legal access, what will be its code of conduct, what will be the police action and the outcome of each case should be informed to the people but those places have to be done.”

Interim government adviser Rizwana Hasan told reporters on September 11 about police reform, police reform will be based on everyone's opinion, including the UN's recommendations. “Police is either used by this group or used by that group. Bangladesh Police no longer became them. But there is a huge urge for change in the police as well.”

Although the main work on police reform will be done by the Ministry of Home Affairs. However, he did not agree to give an interview even though he went to the secretariat to inquire about how the ministry is progressing and what it is doing.

Bangladesh /OF