Claiming that he received phone calls recently from the two major political parties regarding the transfer of two police officials, Law Adviser Asif Nazrul urged political parties to abandon such practices.
“BNP and Jamaat must come out of the ‘my people, your people’ culture. The NCP and the smaller parties must also come out of it. The smaller or emerging parties are not free from this disease either,” said Asif Nazrul.
He made these comments at a roundtable titled “Bangladesh Police Reform: Challenges and Action Points” on Saturday at the Prothom Alo office in Karwan Bazar.
Asif Nazrul said that this “my people, your people” culture reached a terrible state during the Awami League era.
“All the bad things in Bangladesh — the evil-doing — began in the first Awami League government in 1973. All bad practices – disappearances, extrajudicial killings, custodial torture, custodial deaths, fake elections, politicization – everything was started by the Awami League, others only continued it.”
Highlighting various aspects of police torture, he said, “Some carry out torture under the orders of the ruling party, to fulfil its wishes. And some do it by their own nature — they want to be powerful, make money. The government may ask for a certain level of repression, but they do ten times more.”
He cited former Inspector General of Police Benazir Ahmed as an example of such personal behaviour.
Pointing to institutional limitations and lack of forensic facilities as reasons behind torture, Asif Nazrul said, “In some cases, torture is used to force confession — it’s part of our culture.”
Asif Nazrul said the Code of Criminal Procedure has been amended so that relatives must be informed within 12 hours of an arrest pointing out the government measures to stop police torture of citizens and additionally, the law on enforced disappearances has been amended so that if someone is not accounted for within 24 hours, it will be considered a disappearance.
Responding to criticism that the Police Reform Commission lacks authority, the law adviser said that having power does not automatically ensure protection of human rights.
