Press Statement [Click for Bengali Version] Released on 4th March 2014

Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) express grave concern over the death of 3 people in ‘Gunfights’ with the law enforcement agencies at Kadamtali and Savar.

Two people have been killed in ‘Gunfight’ with RAB at Kadamtali on 3 March 2014 and one with Police at Savar on 2 March 2014. [1] According to different media reports and ASK’s own fact-finding, 33 people in January and 16 people in February 2014 have allegedly been killed by the law enforcement agencies.

We have been observing that these kinds of extra-judicial killings have taken an increasing toll in recent time. We consider that perpetrators of any crime must be punished following the due process of law; no person should be subjected to extra-judicial punishment or killing.

It is the duty of the state to ensure necessary safety measures for captives in the custody of law enforcement agencies.

We would like to recall, Article- 31 of the Constitution of Peoples’ Republic of Bangladesh ensures the right to protection of law and to be treated in accordance with law as the inalienable right of every citizen and Article- 32 states that no person shall be deprived of life or personal liberty.

The Ruling government has repeatedly expressed their commitment for ‘Zero tolerance’ to extra-judicial killing during the ‘Universal Periodic Review’ of Bangladesh at the United Nations Human Rights Council. Despite of expressing such commitment at the global platform, we have not seen any effective measure at the national level in this regard.

Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) urges the government to take immediate action and ensure exemplary punishment for the perpetrators to stop the recurrence of such extra-judicial killings by law enforcement agencies.