IN A historically and politically significant move, a national mass inquiry commission to investigate the recent violent crackdown on student protests that sought reforms in public service job quota was announced on July 29 at a protest that lawyers organised in Dhaka. The commission is meant to establish the political and legal liability for criminal offences committed by opening fire on protesters and the commission members include democratically-oriented citizens from across professions, including lawyers, teachers, writers and journalists. Turning a deaf ear to the growing demand for an impartial investigation, the government has so far imposed an internet lockdown, ordered wholesale arrest targeting the protesters and political opposition and created a situation of terror. Immediately after the death of a student at Begum Rokeya University, a one-member judicial investigation commission was formed, but the commission鈥檚 scope is limited to the death of six people killed on July 16. Moreover, the police cases filed in this regard make no reference to the killing of people by police brutality. Such an omission speaks of the government鈥檚 manifest tendency to deny taking legal responsibility and is particularly abhorrent when society at large has already termed the slain students as martyrs. The mass inquiry commission is, therefore, taking the responsibility that the government has failed to do, which is to facilitate the process of legal liability for the massacre-like violence in protest policing.
The investigation of the commission and the report it would produce may not have a direct legal significance, but they will defy all attempts at concealing facts and figures regarding casualties from the violence and remain a document for years to come. Considering the political weight of the task, the commission should immediately frame the terms of reference for its investigation and in doing so, it may look into other similar examples from around the world. The experience of national and international commissions investigating state-sponsored violence and structural discrimination in their particular contexts, despite their limitations, can work as a useful reference. The task of investigating violence of this scale is tedious, but it should be thorough and rigorous to ensure that all death, injuries, the unlawful use of lethal weapons and the deployment of extra-legal forces are accounted for, especially when there are allegations that the government is erasing evidence. The scale and scope of the investigation also suggest the need for mobilising financial resources. The commission should, therefore, consider creating a public fund, maintaining the accounts with absolute transparency and keeping the public routinely informed. Equally important is that the commission members should create no scope for the integrity of the investigation being questioned and, therefore, avoid attending rallies and political programmes for or against any quarters which may be read as their bias and refrain from making any public statement that can create undue controversy about the process.
In the context of the government鈥檚 unhesitant reliance on lies and deceit to avoid taking responsibility for the unprecedented violence that killed more than 200 people and injured several thousand, the role that the national mass inquiry commission promises is commendable and requires unconditional public support. The commission has a tall order to fulfil considering the gravity of the task at hand.