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PREVENTING SNATCHING OF MILITANTS

Measures not fully implemented yet
FM MIZANUR RAHAMAN and EMRUL HASAN BAPPI
The Police Headquarters in August asked all its units to implement a set of measures by September 15 to prevent recurrence of militants or criminals getting snatched away.
Some of the vital measures, however, are yet to be implemented.
The measures were adopted based on 14 recommendations placed by a high-powered committee formed to investigate the incident of two death-row convicts in publisher Faisal Arefin Dipan murder case getting snatched away from Dhaka court premises on November 20, 2022.
Nasian Wazed, additional DIG (operations) of PHQ, later issued a letter mentioning the 14 recommendations.
The key recommendations include installing CCTV cameras in each prison van to monitor movement of accused; carrying members of banned militant outfits in separate prison van if possible; installing and monitoring CCTV cameras on court premises; arranging online attendance for risky and convicted accused before producing them in courts; keeping high risk criminals at the Dhaka Central Jail in South Keraniganj instead of Kashimpur after arrest; using prison vans to carry top terrorists, militants and notorious criminals instead of taking other transports; and developing a software for management of accused in prosecution division.
Talking to officials concerned and visiting courts, this newspaper learnt that no CCTV camera was set up in prison vans except one, none of the high-risk accused was shifted to the central jail in Keraniganj from Kashimpur jail, while online hearing arrangement is yet to be taken at all Dhaka courts.
Online attendance management for risky and convicted accused is now available at seven Dhaka courts, said the staffers concerned.
The situation is the same, perhaps even bleaker, in Chattogram.
Five police officials, deployed at the lockups of the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court and the Metropolitan Sessions Judge’s Court in Dhaka, said only one prison van has CCTV camera facilities, which comes to the court from Gazipur carrying both risky accused as well as regular ones.
“We have sent a report to the PHQ, mentioning what steps we have already taken based on its recommendations,” Mohammad Anisur Rahman, deputy commissioner of DMP’s prosecution division, told The Daily Star on October 23.
The authorities of Dhaka Central Jail and Kashimpur High Security Jail did not get any letter yet regarding implementing the PHQ’s recommendations.
Subash Kumar Ghosh, senior jail superintendent (in-charge) of Dhaka Central Jail, and Subrata Kumar Bala, senior jail superintendent of Kashimpur High Security Jail, confirmed this.
Both of them said they installed equipment for online attendance in some special cases for risky and convicted accused before producing them to court.
While the Chattogram Metropolitan Police claimed to have made some progress regarding implementing the recommendations, the range police refused to disclose their process.
Contacted, Mustafizur Rahman, deputy commissioner (south) of CMP, said, “Our teams have started working to collect information about the high profile banned militants who are now in Chattogram prison.”
“Considering the incident last year, we are arranging special security in court and prison vans while transporting banned or convicted militants from prison to court. Jail authorities can talk about the virtual court or online hearing process as they are working on it,” he added.
Nessar Uddin Ahmed, superintendent of police (operations) at Chattogram Deputy Inspector General’s office, “The
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