Ain o Shalish Kendra (ASK) is deeply disappointed and condemns the comments made by Port and Shipping minister Shajahan Khan on BBC Sanglap. According to the newspapers, the minister said, “It is not possible to try criminals under the existing laws and it is “Crossfire” that will, one day, bring all criminality to an end”. We are gravely concerned over such comments made by a responsible minister of the government on a forum as significant as BBC Sanglap. Previously, the explanation we had received from the government regarding “Crossfire” related deaths that, they were accidental and were beyond the control of law enforcement agencies. In the pursuit of preventing criminal activities, such deaths were unavoidable, as the Law officers had to defend themselves. The public opinion is that it is almost impossible to bring such dangerous criminals to justice and hence “Crossfire” is a justifiable alternative. They blame the judicial system and the weakness and corruption of its administration for this situation. However, we would like to say that the weakness of the judicial system and the related corruption is in fact a failure of the government, and it is its obligation to restore the rule of law. By embracing extrajudicial course of action to fight crime, the government, not only endangers the rule of law but also dishonors its own constitutional responsibility. The duty of a democratically elected government is to respect and uphold the rule of law, not to adopt extrajudicial strategies.
Even after condemning “Crossfire” in their electoral manifesto and reaffirming their “zero tolerance” policy towards extrajudicial killings, several ministers of the government keep on denying the crossfire related incidents that are taking place. However, by defending extrajudicial killings, the Shipping Minister has in effect acknowledged that “Crossfire” related incidents actually are going on. Hence, the government’s true stand on the matter is deeply perplexing. Since the comments come from a responsible minister, unless there is an expression of strong disapproval from the government, we would assume that it is also their position on the “Crossfire” issue. We demand a clear response from the government regarding their stand on this matter as soon as possible.