Incidence of human rights violation in the country marked a sharp rise in the year that just went by. Such violations encompassed all levels of life and surpassed in magnitude similar instances in the previous years.
To add to the trend, the government, the executive branch of the state, ignored the judiciary to a great extent right from the start of 2002. Also, it showed sheer intolerance to divergent opinions, especially of the opposition.
The misuse of such controversial legal provisions as Section 54 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and the Special Powers Act (SPA) also rose. Human rights violation by the army, the paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), and the police only added to the difficult situation in 2002.
Arrest and detention of several eminent leaders, journalists and columnists generated severe criticism at home and abroad. They were arrested without any specific charge, placed on police remand and were tortured. What's worse, when conventional laws did not permit further detention, the government took recourse to the SPA to keep them behind bars.
Notable among the victims is Shahriar Kabir, a freelance journalist and writer who is well known for his anti-fundamentalists stance and his strong voice for trial of the killers of the War of Liberation.
Also detained is eminent historian and columnist Professor Muntasir Mamun, a staunch critic of the government on various issues. Freelance journalist Saleem Samad and NGO worker Pricilla Raj round off the list.
Human rights
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Among the politicians subjected to harassment are Awami League leaders Tofail Ahmed, Saber Hossain Chowdhury, Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, Mukul Bose, Shafi Ahmed, Bahauddin Nasim, Talukder Abdul Khalek, Liakat Shikder, Nazrul Islam Babu and others. Some other political leaders were also arrested without any specific charge and detained. All of them were severely tortured during police remand.
Shahriar and Saber were arrested twice and are now in jail, while Bahauddin Nasim has been in prison since his arrest ten months back.
The government has misused and, in some cases, even bent the law while dealing with them. There are evidences that the government purposely detained some of them.
For instance, after his arrest under Section 54, Bahauddin Nasim was placed on a five-day remand. However, he was on remand for two additional days and the police defied the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court order that had asked them to produce Bahauddin before the court upon expiry of the remand.
Later, he was made accused in three separate cases. But as Bahauddin got bail in all these cases, the government sent him to jail on a month's detention on November 18. And when the detention neared end, the government increased it by 90 more days on December 15. Last Monday, the High Court declared this order illegal.
Similarly, the High Court granted Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir bail in six cases. In each case, the government bought time by delaying in sending the bail order to the jail authorities and implicated him in a new case in the interregnum. Alamgir was eventually released on September 18 after a long-drawn legal battle and six months in prison.
The president, general secretary and another top-ranking leader of the AL-backed Bangladesh Chhatra League went through similar predicament. Arrested under Section 54, the three were shown arrested in new cases whenever they got bail and were about to step out of prison. They were implicated in six separate cases and kept behind bars for seven months.
Former state minister Talukder Abdul Khalek was similarly shown arrested in three cases one after another whenever the High Court granted him bail.
Tofail Ahmed's case was altogether different. Although covered by a High Court that prohibited his arrest till March 4, 2003 without any specific charge, the former industries minister was arrested and sent to jail on a month's detention.
Saber Hossain Chowdhury was first arrested on October 20 and later released on a High Court bail on November 20. On December 8 he was arrested again under Section 54. This time, however, although High Court granted him bail, he was sent to prison on a month's detention.
Muntasir was arrested under Section 54. Although the High Court granted him bail and there is no case against him, the eminent columnist was detained for a month.
Shahriar, meanwhile, was implicated in a sedition case upon his arrest. He, too, obtained bail from the High Court but was nonetheless detained under the SPA.
The same was the fate for Saleem. The freelance journalist also got bail from the High Court on December 23 but was sent anyway to prison next day on a month's detention. Yesterday, a writ was moved with the High Court challenging his detention.
In each case, different wings of the government flouted the law of the land. In the case of Saber, Shahriar and Muntasir, the police even went to the extent of ignoring High Court nullifying their remand orders. Also, while the High Court instructed the magistrate's court to record Saber's statement, it was not done.
Similarly, police did not obey the court when asked to produce Saleem and Pricilla before the court on expiry of their remand.
The Constitution guarantees an arrestee's right to a counsel. It also says that a person must produced before court within 24 hours of his or her arrest and that no person shall be tortured. It also makes mandatory that magistrate's court obey High Court orders and the police obey the order of the magistrate's court.
However, in none of the cases mentioned above, the magistrate's court obeyed the High Court orders, nor did the police obey the orders of the magistrate's court.
These cases, legal experts believe, reflect the government's negative attitude towards carrying out court order and augur a worsening trend of human rights violation.
The legal experts have said on many occasions that the state was created to protect the fundamental human rights.
The administration, police, magistrate and courts were created to protect these rights, as guaranteed in the Constitution. However, the government is misusing the administration to violate these rights.