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BANGLADESH: A man allegedly beaten to death by the Nabiganj police in Habiganj district

December 5, 2006

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ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME

5 December 2006
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UA-388-2006: BANGLADESH: A man allegedly beaten to death by the Nabiganj police in Habiganj district

BANGLADESH: Torture; extra-judicial killing; denial of medical treatment; concealing the dead body; collapse of rule of law
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Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) was informed that a man was allegedly beaten to death by the Nabiganj police in Habiganj district on 25 November 2006. After the police allegedly beat the driver of the commandeered private pickup van, the perpetrators left his dead body along a roadside ditch. No murder charges have been registered with the local police station against the alleged perpetrators. The government authorities have simply removed four out of the ten alleged perpetrators from the area.

CASE DETAILS:

On 25 November 2006, the Nabiganj police commandeered a pickup van (Number: Dhaka Metro-Ma-02-1997) from Mr. Harun Mian. In the evening, a ten-member police team lead by Sub Inspector (SI) Mr. Shafikul Islam went to different places using the van to detain those who they were arresting. The members of the police team were SI Mr. Badrul Hasan, Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) Mr. Aman Ullah Sarkar, ASI Mr. Abdus Salam, constables Mr. Kabir Mian, Mr. Toyab Ali, Mr. Abdul Matin, Mr. Mosharaf Hossain, Mr. Humayan Kabir, and Mr. Abdus Sattar of the Nabiganj police station.

At around 11:00 pm, the police went to Umarpur village leaving the pickup van on the Habiganj-Nabiganj road adjacent to the village. SI Shafilul asked the pickup van driver Mr. Harun Mian to park the vehicle facing the direction of Nabiganj. After about half an hour, the police team came back and found the driver sleeping and had not moved the pickup van as he was asked to do. The police became visibly annoyed with the driver and cursed him. Harun protested the ill treatment of the policemen, at which point the police started beating him with sticks and riffle bats. The incident was witnessed by Mr. Oli Mian who is the assistant driver who fled the scene in order to save his own life.

The following morning on November 26, Oli Mian informed Harun's family about the incident who then organized a search party.  Finally, they found Harun's dead body in a ditch beside the Habiganj-Nabiganj road near Umarpur Paler Bazar. The relatives of Harun and the villagers believe that after Harun died at the hands of police brutality, the officers threw his body into the ditch.

The Nabiganj police recovered the dead body after it was sent to the Habiganj Sadar Hospital for autopsy following an inquest conducted by police of the same police station on November 26. They have registered the killing merely as an Unnatural Death (UD) case with the Nabiganj police station instead of lodging a murder investigation against the errant policemen. No further action has been taken so far by the authorities. 

Hundreds of workers burst into protests in the area having heard of the incident and demanded punishment of the alleged perpetrators however the police anyhow managed to convince the local workers leaders to stop their protest. On November 26, the district police administration then withdrew 4 policemen, including two SIs and two ASPs, out of 10 suspects for their involvement with the incident but so far no legal action has been initiated against them as well as the other 6 policemen. 

The victim's wife now strongly demands justice for the victim and punishment of the alleged perpetrators. She is also worried about her own family's security, the livelihood and the future of her three children. The victim was the only breadwinner of the family. All the childresn are below the age of 10.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: 

In Bangladesh, it is common practice that the police frequently commandeer private vehicles by force for their own purposes. In most cases, they take away the private vehicles, including buses, trucks, microbuses, cars, jeeps, three-wheelers and rickshaw vans from the streets. When commandeering a vehicle, the police order the passengers to get out. If the driver refuses to vacate or fails to comply with the demands, the police will then beat the driver. It seems the only way of enforcing laws by the police of Bangladesh is beating, torturing and killing. 

So-called action against the alleged perpetrators (police officers) by withdrawing them from the area is done whenever any of thee police personnel commit crimes in public. The local police administration then "closes" that particular person or a group of persons. This means that they withdraw the accused from one place and relocate them to another district police barrack. They do this with the intention of diverting the public attention from the original incident.  

The AHRC deplores the murder of Harun and condemns the police's practice of commandeering vehicles for their own personal use. The AHRC also is outraged to hear that the authorities have done nothing other than withdrawing four of the ten alleged murders from the area.  We demand that the government of Bangladesh immediately investigate this case and provide exceptional compensation to the victim's family. It should be considered a national shame that police officers are responsible for such atrocities. Corruption and the dysfunctional police system in Bangladesh are fast becoming amongst the worst in the world.  
 
SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please immediately write to the relevant Bangladesh government authorities listed below urging them to take prompt action to investigate the conduct of the police in the alleged extra-judicial killing of Harun Mian. Please also send your letters to the relevant UN agencies listed below.

Sample Letter:

Dear __________,

BANGLADESH: A man beaten to death by the Nabiganj police in Habiganj district

Name of the victim: Mr. Md. Harun Mian, aged 33, a pickup van driver, son of the late Mr. Abdul Gafur, resident of Shandha village of Kaliabhanga union under the Nabiganj police station in Habiganj district, Sylhet division
Name of alleged perpetrators:
1. Mr. Shafikul Islam, Sub Inspector (SI) attached to the Nabiganj police station, Habiganj
2. Mr. Badrul Hasan, SI
3. Mr. Aman Ullah Sarkar, Assistant Sub Inspector of Police (ASI)
4. Mr. Abdus Salam, ASI
5. Mr. Kabir Mian, police constable (PC)
6. Mr. Toyab Ali, PC
7. Mr. Abdul Matin, PC
8. Mr. Mosharaf Hossain, PC
9. Mr. Humayan Kabir, PC
10. Mr. Abdus Sattar, PC
(All of them are attached to the Nabiganj police station, Habiganj district, Sylhet division)
Date of incident: At around 11:30pm on 25 November 2006
Place of incidence: Habiganj to Nabiganj road at Umarpur village, under Nabiganj police station in Habiganj district
 
I am writing to express my deep concern about the alleged extra-judicial killing of Harun Mian by the 10 police officers from the Nabiganj police station in Habignj district, Sylhet division, Bangladesh on 25 November 2006.

According to the information I have received, on 25 November 2006 the Nabiganj police commandeered the victim's pickup van wearing license plate number Dhaka Metro-Ma-02-1997 and 10 police officers mentioned above used the van to detain those who they were arresting in different places on the same evening.  The victim was reportedly ordered by the police to drive the car. 

However, at around 11:30pm on the Habiganj-Nabiganj road adjacent to the Umarpur village, the victim was brutally beaten by the said 10 officers with sticks and riffle bats, simply because he did not park the vehicle as they ordered. Mr. Oli Mian, the assistant driver and eye witness of the incident, fled the scene to save his own life.

I was informed that on the following morning on November 26, the victim's body was found by his family members and local people in a ditch beside the Habiganj-Nabiganj road near Umarpur Paler Bazar. The victim's family believes that the officers threw his body into the ditch after he died due to serious assault. 

I am extremely disappointed to learn that have the Nabiganj police simply registered the killing as an Unnatural Death (UD) case instead of filing a murder case against the said 10 officers. I was also informed that the district police administration merely withdrew only four alleged perpetrators from the area and sent them to other police district barrack due to huge pressure from the local people, while the other 6 are still at large. No action has been initiated to bring the alleged perpetrators before court despite the fact that such crime is punishable under section 302 and 307 of the Penal Code of Bangladesh. I am also well aware that such so-call action against the alleged perpetrators (police officers) is an "eye wash" to divert the attention of the people.

I am also deeply concerned about the security and livelihood of the victim's family who lost the only breadwinner to support them. All the victim's children are aged below 10. 

In light of the above, I strongly you to ensure that a prompt, fair and thorough investigation is taken into this alleged extra-judicial killing by the Nabiganj police. I am also deeply concerned by the impartiality of the investigation. It is hard to have a credit of the investigation result until it is conducted by the Nabiganj police where the alleged perpetrators were/are working. I therefore urge you to make an independent police agents investigate into this case and indict the alleged perpetrators under section 302 of the Penal Code of Bangladesh as soon as possible. Those responsible must be arrested with murder charges and detained in the remand prison as the murder charge is non-bailable by law. This will also ensure the security of the victim's family from possible harassment and threats by the alleged perpetrators or the local police. I also urge you to ensure that the family members are adequately compensated as well.

The repeated violations by the law enforcement officers in Bangladesh point out the urgent need of strict discipline among police and other security forces. Without these, such abuses will no doubt continue. To prevent such crimes by the state officers, the Bangladesh government must ratify the Convention against Torture (CAT) without further delay and strictly enforce it into domestic level. 

Therefore, I strongly urge you together with other government officials in Bangladesh to take genuine action to reform the current law enforcement system by introducing better training programmes, enforcing strict discipline and punishment for any misconduct and crimes by the state officers against the citizens of Bangladesh.

I look forward to your urgent intervention in this matter.
 
Yours sincerely,


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PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTERS TO:

1. Prof. Iajuddin Ahmed
President & Chief Adviser
Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh
Bangabhaban, Dhaka
BANGLADESH
Tel: +880 2 9568041, 7161501/A, 8311202/ 7161503/A
Fax: +880 2 9566242 or 9566593

2. Mr. Sayed J. R. Modassir Hossain
Chief Justice
The Supreme Court of Bangladesh
Supreme Court Building
Ramna, Dhaka-1000
BANGLADESH
Tel: +88-02-9562792
Fax: +88-02-9565058

3. Mr. A J Mohammad Ali
Attorney General of Bangladesh
The Office of the Attorney General
Supreme Court Building
Ramna, Dhaka-1000
BANGLADESH
Tel: +88-02-9562868
Fax: +88-02-9561568

4. Mr. Khoda Bokhs Chowdhury
Inspector General of Police (IGP)
Bangladesh Police
Police Headquarters'
Fulbaria, Dhaka-1000
BANGLADESH
Tel: +88-02-9562054 or 7176451 or 7176677
Fax: +88-02-9563362 or 9563363

5. Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG)
Sylhet Range
Office of the DIG of SylhetRange
Bandar Bazar, Sylhet
BANGLADESH
Tel: +88-0821-841181 (O)
Fax: +88-0821-840080 (O)

6. Mr. Philip Alston
Special Rapporteur on Extra-judicial, Summary, or Arbitrary Executions
Attn: Lydie Ventre
Room 3-016, c/o OHCHR-UNOG
1211 Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Tel: +41 22 917 9155
Fax: +41 22 917 9006 (general)
Email: lventre@ohchr.org


Thank you.

Urgent Appeal Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (ahrchk@ahrchk.org)

Document Type :
Urgent Appeal Case
Document ID :
UA-388-2006
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Extended Introduction: Urgent Appeals, theory and practice

A need for dialogue

Many people across Asia are frustrated by the widespread lack of respect for human rights in their countries.  Some may be unhappy about the limitations on the freedom of expression or restrictions on privacy, while some are affected by police brutality and military killings.  Many others are frustrated with the absence of rights on labour issues, the environment, gender and the like. 

Yet the expression of this frustration tends to stay firmly in the private sphere.  People complain among friends and family and within their social circles, but often on a low profile basis. This kind of public discourse is not usually an effective measure of the situation in a country because it is so hard to monitor. 

Though the media may cover the issues in a broad manner they rarely broadcast the private fears and anxieties of the average person.  And along with censorship – a common blight in Asia – there is also often a conscious attempt in the media to reflect a positive or at least sober mood at home, where expressions of domestic malcontent are discouraged as unfashionably unpatriotic. Talking about issues like torture is rarely encouraged in the public realm.

There may also be unwritten, possibly unconscious social taboos that stop the public reflection of private grievances.  Where authoritarian control is tight, sophisticated strategies are put into play by equally sophisticated media practices to keep complaints out of the public space, sometimes very subtly.  In other places an inner consensus is influenced by the privileged section of a society, which can control social expression of those less fortunate.  Moral and ethical qualms can also be an obstacle.

In this way, causes for complaint go unaddressed, un-discussed and unresolved and oppression in its many forms, self perpetuates.  For any action to arise out of private frustration, people need ways to get these issues into the public sphere.

Changing society

In the past bridging this gap was a formidable task; it relied on channels of public expression that required money and were therefore controlled by investors.  Printing presses were expensive, which blocked the gate to expression to anyone without money.  Except in times of revolution the media in Asia has tended to serve the well-off and sideline or misrepresent the poor.

Still, thanks to the IT revolution it is now possible to communicate with large audiences at little cost.  In this situation there is a real avenue for taking issues from private to public, regardless of the class or caste of the individual.

Practical action

The AHRC Urgent Appeals system was created to give a voice to those affected by human rights violations, and by doing so, to create a network of support and open avenues for action.  If X’s freedom of expression is denied, if Y is tortured by someone in power or if Z finds his or her labour rights abused, the incident can be swiftly and effectively broadcast and dealt with. The resulting solidarity can lead to action, resolution and change. And as more people understand their rights and follow suit, as the human rights consciousness grows, change happens faster. The Internet has become one of the human rights community’s most powerful tools.   

At the core of the Urgent Appeals Program is the recording of human rights violations at a grass roots level with objectivity, sympathy and competence. Our information is firstly gathered on the ground, close to the victim of the violation, and is then broadcast by a team of advocates, who can apply decades of experience in the field and a working knowledge of the international human rights arena. The flow of information – due to domestic restrictions – often goes from the source and out to the international community via our program, which then builds a pressure for action that steadily makes its way back to the source through his or her own government.   However these cases in bulk create a narrative – and this is most important aspect of our program. As noted by Sri Lankan human rights lawyer and director of the Asian Human Rights Commission, Basil Fernando:

"The urgent appeal introduces narrative as the driving force for social change. This idea was well expressed in the film Amistad, regarding the issue of slavery. The old man in the film, former president and lawyer, states that to resolve this historical problem it is very essential to know the narrative of the people. It was on this basis that a court case is conducted later. The AHRC establishes the narrative of human rights violations through the urgent appeals. If the narrative is right, the organisation will be doing all right."

Patterns start to emerge as violations are documented across the continent, allowing us to take a more authoritative, systemic response, and to pinpoint the systems within each country that are breaking down. This way we are able to discover and explain why and how violations take place, and how they can most effectively be addressed. On this path, larger audiences have opened up to us and become involved: international NGOs and think tanks, national human rights commissions and United Nations bodies.  The program and its coordinators have become a well-used tool for the international media and for human rights education programs. All this helps pave the way for radical reforms to improve, protect and to promote human rights in the region.