HRC to ask law enforcers to submit details on ‘unnatural death’

Staff correspondent

The National Human Rights Commission will ask the law enforcement agencies having any alleged connection with any unnatural death to report the death to the commission in 24 hours after the incident.

The law enforcers will need to report the incidents to the commission in details and the commission will take necessary steps if any of the incidents is found to be an extrajudicial killing or custodial death after examining the reports, the commission chair, Mizanur Rahman, said at a conference on Tuesday.

He said, ‘Letters will be sent soon to the law enforcement agencies in accordance with the National Human Rights Commission Act 2009 that empowers the commission to ask for any report from any law enforcement agencies,’

He was addressing the conference at Nabab Nawab Ali Chowdhury Senate Bhaban in Dhaka University on media role in promoting transparency for human rights. The conference was organised by rights group Relief International.

He also emphasised that the commission was concerned about rights violation by the state mechanism rather than providing character certificates for individuals.

Referring to Limon’s case, he said, ‘Limon might have connection with Morshed Jamaddar. And this is not the commission’s concern. All we can do is to be concerned about whether the attack by RAB on Limon was proportional with the threat RAB perceived or the attack was greater than the threat.’

He, however, said that no one including Rapid Action Battalion or government representatives have the authority to say that a person is ‘a terrorist or a criminal.’

‘Only the judiciary is entitled to do so. The court will say whether your act was an act of self defence or crime. If anybody other than court provides say it for certain, then I must say — let judges enjoy their holiday, destroy the courts. In fact, it will save money,’ He added.

He also said that there should be no misunderstanding between the security forces and the commission as both of them work for people’s security and safety.

The consulting editor of the Financial Express, Jaglul Ahmed Chowdhury, read out the keynote at the conference.

Professor Imtiaz Ahmed of Dhaka University and the country director of the Relief International Bangladesh, Nazrul Islam, also spoke.