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Peelkhana Tragedy

Time to probe and punish

The organisation of BDR needs a managerial improvement. It would undoubtedly take time to recover from the tragedy. At the same time the crucial job of restoring the command and control of the border guards would be extremely exacting. The atrocities committed must not go unpunished while delving into the deficits and deviations.

Muhammad Nurul Huda
THE happenings at Peelkhana BDR Headquarters on 25th February last was indeed a tragedy on all accounts. So many promising lives have been lost in their prime in such mindless violence that otherwise stable and phlegmatic people have been dazed and shocked. The atrocities committed by the rebellious elements against their own superiors are manifest acts of vengeance amounting to insanity when seen against the ethos of a regimented outfit.
The question is, what has gone wrong to warrant such a fatal tragedy? Bearing in mind that it is too early to comment on such horrendous events without the benefits of unfolding facts and circumstances; it would perhaps serve some purpose if one looks at the alleged deprivations and sufferings as repeatedly voiced by the rebels over the electronic media
1\vo aspects come out very sharply from the initial reports. One relates to the alleged lack of sensitivity in the grievance redressal mechanism of a vital enforcement unit; and the other to the involvement of a primarily regulatory outfit in matters predominantly commercial. Both are causes for worry for obvious reasons.
One would reasonably expect that the government of the day will delve deep in
to the incident to find out the causative factors and the remedial actions. With the hope that the guilty will be punished and there will be no recurrence of such ghastly aberrations, this writer, in view of his association with the prime law-enforcement organization of the country in the not-to-distant past, would like to record his observations for managerial improvements insofar it relates to police.
There is not much thinking in concerned quarters whether the police in Bangladesh are showing clear signs of
work-related stress and experiencing its negative impact on mental and physical health. Very few seem to care if role ambiguity, role conflicts, work overload, conflicting orders, abnormally extended hours of work both in day and night shifts, criminalization of politics, close nexus among criminals, politicians and bureaucrats, public apathy and collapse of other agencies of criminal justice system are causing worrisome stresses for our police personnel. In Bangladesh, the presence of stress among policemen is still not recog-
nized as a major enemy of law-enforcement professionals.
It is a sad commentary that up till now for a policeman in Bangladesh the focus is always on the job to be done. People have to last a lifetime and strenuous tasks such as policing eventually become too arduous and exacting. Therefore, the special vulnerability of the police as an occupa tional group to job stress and burnout deserves recognition with a view to looking for the solutions to the problems. The search may impact on operational procedures and future training and illustrate the potential dangers of certain physical and psychological responses which may be amenable to modification through training and other interventions.
On the street level the police job is fraught with contradictions and inconsistencies. The duties of the police officer depend upon such diverse factors as the law, court decisions, the political climate, community pressures and personality of the commander amongst others. The consequent role ambiguity is associated with high job related tension.
A police officer's role in contemporary Bangladesh is rather paradoxical in nature. He comes across conflicting situations when he finds that he has to enforce directives which are not strictly legal and which the public wishes that the police would discreetly ignore. Fulfilling the expectations of the public and obligation to his organizational role poses a very difficult situation causing stress to individual officers. This role conflict occurs when simultaneous advent of two or more sets of pressures are such that compliance with one would make more difficult compliance with the other.
Therefore, the greatly increased conflicts of role expectations, organizational and institutional constraints, unrealistic demands and dilemmas of the cop in uniform need to be examined explicitly.
Looking into the travails of the police one would find that police work is arduous, often dirty and unpleasant and sometimes dangerous. Night work is a standard feature of their life. They are not paid for overtime work. They too often work on holidays and during festivals. While illustrating the process of dehumanization in the departmental culture of the police, it has been observed that prolonged absence of any family life and absence of nearness to children deprive the policeman of the feel of family life. Absence of reasonable vacation coupled with increasing task pressures drive policeman to do wrong things. A little bit of sadism also creeps in as he is made to sacrifice all he has and receive public condemnation as reward.
Most of us in Bangladesh are familiar with the sloppy, discourteous, rude, aggressive and bully figure in police uniform but we do not seem to realize that policemen are largely underpaid, overworked, demoralized, inadequately trained and equipped and subject to political interference, feared as a persecutor rather than respected as a protector, often callous and corrupt. Analysts had found that police unrest in the past was a cumulative result of managerial mismanagement, absence of a sense of accomplishment and growth, neglect of basic physiological and psychological needs, absence of effective grievance redress machinery, emasculated leadership, absence of participative management and unsatisfactory working and living conditions.
Police organization in Bangladesh needs to sit up and take note of the crucial problem of job stress. A comprehensive plan for the recognition, diagnosis and management of stress and stress control programmes for police personnel might help resolve the problem. The subordinate officials who are the most stressed groups should be given counseling for better coping. Both the individuals and the organization must participate in the stress resolution process.
The police organization should be engaged to employ the services of psychologist at the time of selection and placement and choose individuals more suitable to perform the job effectively. Right job redesigning may help reduce the stress levels. Clarifying the organizational goal in consonance with law may reduce stressful situations.
The police organization must look beyond the military model; reorient its structure, policies and procedures; provide adequate support and organizational intervention to the management of stress within the law enforcement agency. Our policemen are truly a stressed lot Psychological services and trained psychologist must be made an integral part of the organizational setup.
Like police the organisation of BDR also needs a managerial improvement.
It would undoubtedly take time to recover from the tragedy. At the same time the crucial job of restoring the command and control of the border guards would be extremely exacting. The atrocities committed must not go unpunished while delving into the deficits and deviations.
Muhammad Nurul Huda s a cotomnot for The Da*y Star