MUKUL SHARMA

C

Richil’s body was handed over to the Garo community church on March 19. His family observed multiple bruises, nails missing from his fingers and toes and cuts and scratches consistent with blade wounds. His testicles had been removed. Local government officials have stated that an “administrative inquiry” into the case has been initiated, but there is silence on the terms of reference or the progress of the inquiry.

More than 1,00,000 people have been detained, often in mass arrests, since early January with no way to establish the total number of those who remain in detention. Abuses against human rights defenders, social activists, journalists and nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) are occurring frequently during the emergency. According to the Dhaka-based human rights organisation Odhikar during the first 130 days of emergency from January 12 to May 21, 2007, a total of 96 persons were reportedly killed during different operations by the law-enforcement personnel. In addition, 1,93,329 were reported arrested, inclusive of general arrests for violations of law. Of the 96 reported killed, 54 were killed by the paramilitary Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), 25 by the police, seven by the joint forces, six by the army and three by the navy. One person was reported killed by officers of the department of narcotics control.

Successive governments in Bangladesh have shown total disregard for human rights. With political rallies and other political activities banned and restrictions imposed on the right to freedom of expression during the emergency, the excesses are neither exposed nor protested against. What is even more disturbing is that in the name of cleaning up corruption or criminal activity, emergency and repressive measures are being used to institutionalise a cycle of disregard for human rights in general, and for abuses against human rights defenders in particular. A cycle of impunity for human rights violations, which has prevailed in the country over its decades-long existence, is becoming a daily affair.

In this environment, a larger social constituency is at severe risk. Shahidul Islam, the founding director of Uttaran, a NGO working for the social and economic empowerment of the poor and the disadvantaged communities in the western districts of Khulna, Satkhira and Jessore, was arrested and taken into joint forces’ custody on January 27, 2007. Following the arrest, he was served with a detention order under the Special Powers Act (SPA) on the unspecific grounds that he had “engaged in acts of terrorism and had harboured terrorists”. The police subsequently filed several criminal charges against him, apparently as additional means of securing his continued detention. Several days later when Shahidul Islam was allowed to have visitors, it was discovered that he had been severely beaten on his legs and his back, as the joint forces personnel accused him of possessing illegal weapons. He had to be sent to the Satkhira Sadar hospital for treatment, and was later returned to the Satkhira District Jail, where he continues to be detained.

Agents of the state, including the police, the army and the other law-enforcement personnel, for whom successive governments have been directly responsible, have perpetrated several human rights violations in the past. Other perpetrators of human rights abuses are individuals or groups linked to armed criminal gangs, parties of the ruling coalition or the opposition, or mercenary gangs allegedly hired by the local politicians to suppress revelations about their unlawful activity. Hundreds of social and human rights activists have received death threats. Scores of them have been attacked. Several journalists have had their fingers or hands deliberately damaged so as to disable them from holding a pen. Many have had to leave their homes and localities in the face of continued threats. An Amnesty International report documents that during 2000-05, at least eight human