AMIDST the global and national call for an immediate end to the ongoing violence against student protests seeking reforms public service quota that left more than 200 dead and several thousand injured, the government maintains its repressive approach. Many injured victims, critically injured with pellets, tear-gas shells, or stun grenades being treated in various hospitals in Dhaka, live in fear of arrest and express serious concern about their security as law enforcers in plain clothes are forcibly taking their finger prints, photographs and other personal information. The father of a 13-year-old boy with critical injuries with pellet gunshots report that police personnel in plain clothes secured biometric information while his son was still in the critical care unit and provided them with no answer about the use of the information. Another patient, a father of two and an auto-rickshaw driver admitted to the National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedic Rehabilitation, also appears anxious about the unlawful collection of biometric information. The harassment and intimidation of the injured while being treated in hospital is inhumane and a worrying sign of the government鈥檚 unwilling attitude to end this violent crackdown on protesters and ordinary citizens.
Many injured victims have not sought treatment in hospitals to avoid arrest. Many families, already forced to provide biometric information, worry that the information is being collected to file cases against them and to arrest them in the near future. Their fear and anxiety are not unfounded as an injured higher secondary examinee was arrested at the gate of the Dhaka Medical College Hospital on July 18. Jurists and rights activists termed such an act of forcibly securing biometric information illegal and a violation of an individual鈥檚 constitutionally guaranteed right to privacy. They say that the law enforcement agencies have no authority to collect such information from citizens unless they are legally arrested. Sadly, however, such violations have become a known form of intimidation in recent days. It has been widely reported that the law enforcement agencies at various checkpoints are asking people to unlock their mobiles and going through their messages and photo galleries to see if they have any ties with the movement for quota reforms. What has been happening at the checkpoints is a violation of the constitution and laws as Article 43 of the constitution of the Bangladesh state recognises the protection and privacy of individuals and it amounts to denial of treatment when done on an undertreated injured victim of police violence.
The government needs to realise that the wound that the unprecedented violence against the unarmed student protesters has created is too large and too deep and the continued intimidation, harassment and wholesale arrest of students and ordinary citizens will further contribute to people鈥檚 unattended grievances. The government must, therefore, immediately abandon its repressive attitude towards the protesting student, stop all forms of intimidation and harassment and ensure proper treatment for the injured victim of police violence. It must immediately initiate a credible investigation and establish justice and accountability for the reported massacre.
