Dhaka: As Bangladesh goes through a transition, one of the key challenges before the interim government is to ensure justice for the hundreds of people including students, hawkers and even children who were allegedly killed in police action during the students’ protests that eventually led to the ouster of Sheikh Hasina.
In an exclusive interview to ThePrint, Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust executive director Sara Hossain said justice for these victims is an enormous challenge as the largest number of allegations are against police, members of the security forces, and the student and youth wing of the Awami League.
She said these cases of murder have to be recorded and investigated. The problem, however, is that for many days, the police were not even on duty.
“There have been mass killings in Bangladesh. They happened with the police firing on unarmed and peaceful protesters. The biggest question in front of us is how do we get justice for those hundreds of people? We don’t even know how many right now,” she said.
One of the reports, she added, indicates that over 80 children were killed.
Another challenge, she said, remains that many of the police, serving under Hasina, who were ‘political recruits’, still remain in office in different places, including the police. “In that context, getting justice is very challenging.”
Hossain added that the new government has announced setting up a foundation through which the bereaved families of those killed will be able to get reparations and other relief, but how perpetrators will be held accountable is very much an open question.
“We often have a problem with the police not accepting complaints from victims. We have seen this in the last week or two happening as well. There have been incidents when not only the victim’s family, but activists supporting them have been made to sit for hours just so that their complaint is recorded,” she said.
“Victims of these killings are only just beginning the path to seek justice. It’s a very thorny and very challenging path. It is not easy.”
Hossain also pointed out another concern—the manner in which the cases are being filed.
She said that although many who instigated the killing are being booked, names of those who were directly involved in the killing, which includes police officers, members of the Border Guard Bangladesh, and of the youth and students wings of the Awami League are not being named.
“That is raising concerns that those who are directly involved in these killings will ever be held accountable?”
She also added that by including names of many people who may have had nothing to do with the incident, as seen in many cases of Awami leaders as well as a Bangladeshi cricketer, booked for murder, questions if the process of justice is irretrievably “muddied and confused” and will the victims of these killings not receive justice at the end of the day.
The senior advocate said there are serious concerns about the manner in which cases are being lodged against individuals and whether practices from the immediate past are being continued. She, however, added that it is not clear whether that is being continued also to undermine the interim government.
“It is not clear whether It is being done by the government at the very top, or a few people who are trying to steal this transition through and all of the machinery underneath them.”
She said what is required at the moment is direction from the government on how the process of justice should unfold. “The government has to direct, to make sure the victims are supported in this process of seeking justice so that they are not left high and dry by processes that are ongoing.”
‘Our systems have been hollowed out from inside’
Talking about the judiciary that has allegedly been ‘politicised’ and ‘marred with corruption’ under the regime of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, Hossain said there is an immediate need for reforms in the judiciary.
She said that several years ago, former chief justice S.K.Sinha was compelled to leave the country by the previous government, so Bangladesh was in a situation where neither the lawyers nor judges could seek any kind of remedy.
“There was a tremendous threat over the Judiciary,” she said. “Besides reforms to tackle backlogs, we need reforms around corruption and politicisation.”
She spoke about a judgement by Justice Sinha on the need of a Supreme Judicial Council.
“The judgement talks about how actions against the high judiciary should be through the process of the Supreme Judicial Council. So, I think one of the urgent actions that awaits us is the formation of that Supreme Judicial Council and for that to take the necessary action.”
Regarding the challenges a lawyer faced under the previous government, Hossain said it was not just specific to Hasina’s government.
“It has always been challenging for any lawyer working on human rights in Bangladesh, pretty much any under any government. We have seen police abuse of power, endemic corruption, politicisation across different systems,” she said.
She added that what was different in the last 15 years was that Bangladesh did not have a democratic change which made things worse.
“Prior to that, the situation we faced was five years of one government, five years of another. That change meant that there was some level of check and balance, as different administrations were coming and going.”
“Many of our institutions have been hollowed out from inside so within that context, it’s been very challenging to ensure the protection of human rights,” she said.
She said that civil society actors have faced judicial harassment. Not only have they faced false and vexatious cases, but they haven’t got relief from the court, she added.
“The process has been—the process of harassment has been continued and exacerbated through what happened inside the judiciary,” she said.
On talking about if the end of Sheikh Hasina’s regime was inevitable, she said that it would not have seen this end had there been any level of political engagement.
“I think refusal to acknowledge that the people can have grievances and the insistence on turning anyone with a grievance into traitors, terrorists, and then ultimately taking this extreme measures of indiscriminate firing on huge sections of your own citizens, including young people and children, is what made Hasina’s fall inevitable,” she said.
‘Plurality of politics’
Talking about the need for multiple parties, Hossain said it is time that people with different views and beliefs enter the system.
“We have seen a one party situation for about 15 years. Now, we just need to see a plurality of politics, to see people being able to engage in political activity without being criminalised.”
“We should have people with different views, different beliefs, different approaches, to be able to participate in political life. That’s what democracy is, and that we should be able to respond to politicians with whom we don’t agree by doing our own politics rather than clapping everyone to jail, or calling everyone a terrorist,” she said.
‘India communalised turn of events’
Stressing on the need for close friendship with India, Hossain said that all Bangladeshis want to build a strong bond with New Delhi. But a complete denial that anything is happening in Bangladesh from Indians is what has made this difficult, she said.
She added that a large section of the Indian media gave a communal colour to what happened in Bangladesh, calling everyone an “Islamist”, and not choosing to understand the facts on the ground.
“There was a terrible situation in Bangladesh, where fellow Bangladeshis were facing attack, but instead of that being seen as something where you stand in solidarity with people, you investigate, you find out what happened, hold people to account and support and assist, Bangladeshis were demonised. Turning the whole things into a communal attack,” she said
Hossain acknowledged the attack on minorities including Hindus, Adivasis and the Ahmadiyya community, a Muslim sect, saying it is condemnable. She, however, added that it was seen less in the Indian media when many Bangladeshis immediately rushed to support and protect their friends and neighbours.
This, she said, is not something that can be glossed over and is very disturbing.
“We don’t want to deny what happened. There is no point denying that these attacks happened. They happened against people who belong to the Hindu community, Ahmadiyya, Adivasi, who were not numerically the majority in this country,” she said. “It’s very important that the government takes measures to restore confidence in people.”
She said that a “big reset” in terms of the India-Bangladesh relations is required.
“We just need a big reset in terms of India-Bangladesh relations; recognising we are an independent sovereign nation; we will chart our course, we have our own interest, and we need to be respected,” Hossain said.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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