THE detention of five personnel of a law enforcement agency on charges of holding two young people to ransom is alarming. This appears more so in post July鈥揂ugust uprising. The Detective Branch personnel in Rajshahi picked up the two young people in a microbus on allegations of gambling and held them to a ransom of Tk 12 lakh. The victims were eventually released after the payment of Tk 3.3 lakh. Such criminality within the law enforcement agencies highlights a glaring police oversight failure and raises serious concern about how deeply entrenched are such practices in the agencies. It adds to the concern that incidents such as this keeps happening at a time when reforms of every state institution run high. The recurrence of such incidents, despite ongoing talks on institutional reforms, casts doubt on the effectiveness of the measures and the sincerity of the authorities in enforcing genuine accountability. The continued involvement of police officials in extortion, abduction and violence suggests that the mechanisms to stop abuses are inadequate.
The pattern of law enforcement misconduct extends beyond isolated incidents. On March 13, a man was beaten allegedly in a Rangpur police station over his attempt at filing extortion and bribery case against a deputy police commissioner. In January, three police personnel, including a sub-inspector of the Feni police, were withdrawn on charges of extortion. Meanwhile, police brutality has escalated in dealing with protests, ranging from recommended primary schoolteachers to people standing against rape and gendered violence and apparel workers seeking due wages. The manner the law enforcers have resorted to violence against demonstrators bears little resemblance to fundamental tenets of law and order maintenance. The filing of cases against protesters against rape and reports of night-time raids to arrest them suggest a troubling prioritisation of suppression over justice. A workers protest was attacked on March 25 where the police beat workers and student activists. The persistence of such abuses calls for an urgent scrutiny of why the issues remain unaddressed and why the law enforcers continue to act with such impunity. Without identifying the underlying causes and stringent action, the cycle of abuse is unlikely to break.
The government should, therefore, take the involvement law enforcers in crimes and rights abuse seriously. Each of such reported offences should be investigated and perpetrators should be brought to justice. A strengthened internal and independent oversight is crucial to ensuring accountability. A legal framework that not only penalises but effectively deters such misconduct should be enforced with consistency. Reforms should extend beyond administrative changes to include structural transformation that dismantles the culture of impunity.