Under what law are cell phones checked to identify BNP men?

There have been some very disturbing and indeed alarming scenes in recent times. It is the recent role of the police that is a cause of concern. Due to anti-government political programmes, people’s free movement has indiscriminately been hampered, they have been randomly searched and their personal belongings checked in a humiliating manner. Public transport, private vehicles, nothing was spared. This was only in the case of those entering Dhaka, not exiting. Check posts were set up all around the city. Such mass searches seem to have been even more stringent than the security drive after the militants had been snatched away from the court.

Another disturbing scene is of people being forced to hand over their mobile phones and show their personal messages and photographs on their phones, a mass scale violation of people’s privacy. This is a clear violation of the constitution and also contradictory to the Supreme Court’s directives regarding mobile communication. Mobile phones are no longer just a means of communication. A mobile phone contains a person’s private documents, personal photographs, family photographs and more. No one has the right to access these without legal or court orders. Yet the people had to show their mobile phones to prove they were not against Awami League.

This search of mobile phones and questioning pedestrians was not carried out by the police alone. Media reports that even Chhatra League carried this task out. The police did not stop such activities. Quite to the contrary, when Chhatra League handed over some people to the police, the police did not even question the authority for Chhatra League to do so. If the ruling party’s affiliated organisations can form such informal vigilance teams, will this not encourage the opposition to do the same?

Now that BNP’s 10 December mass rally has concluded in a peaceful and orderly manner, we need the answers to a number of simple questions. BNP’s rally would have taken up at the most six hours of time. But instead, the over 10 million people of Dhaka had to suffer for at least one full day, some even four days. People’s daily routines of going to office, shopping, to the parks, coaching classes, to the physician’s chamber, to attend social events and other matters, had been disrupted. From the pictures of riot vans, water cannons, SWAT teams equipped with AK-47 rifles, it seemed that this was a battle field, something not at all in keeping with a democratic society. Our ministers may have been peeved and irritated by the foreign missions in Dhaka cautioning their nationals to be on alert, but such warnings were hardly out of place or unjustified.

The incidents which appeared in the media about people being punished for joining the BNP rally, reveals a dangerous propensity that the ruling party will not allow anything of which it does not approve. This is all very evident in the incident revolving around the issue of BNP holding its rally in front of its office.

Arresting politicians at night is nothing new... but in the 51 years since the country’s independence, I cannot recall a single incident of any senior politician being taken to the DB office for questioning
Police stopped and searched vehicles at the Chandra intersection of Kaliakoir in Gazipur
File photo

After allowing at least half a dozen rallies in Naya Paltan over the past few weeks, why could the police commissioner not take a speedy decision concerning BNP’s rally? It had been tolerable for vehicle movement to be partially or fully stopped in Naya Paltan and adjacent areas for the past few weeks, but why was it not tolerable for 10 December? It was when the ruling party leaders said that BNP would not be allowed to hold their rally in Naya Paltan and said they would have to go to Suhrawardy Udyan, that the DMP chief told BNP to hold the rally at Suhrawardy Udyan. He must have been very well aware of the fact that the ruling party and its affiliated organisations have been holding a series of programmes at Suhrawardy Udyan up till 8 December. So why was an alternative to Naya Paltan not discussed in the four weeks before?

It is only natural for BNP to be suspicious when the ruling party, the administration and the police simultaneously speak in the same tone about Suhrawardy Udyan. As the right to assemble is a constitutionally recognised fundamental right, even if any higher authority issues orders that violate or infringe on this right of the opposition, this is a contrary to the constitution and the police commissioner has no obligation to comply.

Many questions have arisen concerning the role of the police regarding BNP’s rally. The main question was over giving permission for the rally to be held. From media reports and pictures, it seems that the head of the police’s Detective Branch (DB) had a more prominent role than the police commissioner in discussions with BNP leaders about the rally venue. And it was this DB that picked BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul and senior leader Mirza Abbas from their home at night and took them to the DB office. A new precedence has been set in taking the senior politicians to the DB office to be questioned by the DB police. Arresting politicians at night is nothing new, politicians have even been tied with ropes around their waists. But in the 51 years since the country’s independence, I cannot recall a single incident of any senior politician being taken to the DB office for questioning.

BNP has rejected the police explanation for the sudden raid on the party office and said that this was an entirely staged incident. Indeed, it would be hard to prove that the party was up to subversive activities to thwart their own plan for a rally in front of their office. The matter, therefore, calls for an independent, credible and transparent inquiry.

During the BNP Dhaka rally, the extreme double standards of the police were once again revealed. On one had they refused to give BNP the permission to hold a rally on Dhaka streets as it would hamper vehicular movement. Yet, on the other hand, Awami League and its front organisations were allowed set up dozens and dozens of pandals all over the city. The police didn’t allow anyone near the BNP central office, but Awami League activists sat in front of their office cooking khichuri in the open, with no police intervention. Why this double standard, this bias? These questions are extremely important for the future of our democracy and the rule of law. In no way must these be overlooked.

* Kamal Ahmed is a senior journalist

* This column appeared in the print and online edition of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten for the English edition by Ayesha Kabir