BNP on Tuesday recommended the abolishment of the Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) and formation of a 'police commission' to build police as a people-friendly law enforcement agency.
BNP standing committee member Hafiz Uddin Ahmed came up with the suggestion while placing a number of recommendations over police administration reform at a press conference at the BNP chairperson’s Gulshan office in the capital.
"It can’t be expected to imagine a state or society without police. So, despite the fact that it (police) has almost become an enemy of people, there is no scope of cutting this force. It must be reformed and strengthened again... To reform this essential service (this force) of the state is now the demand of time," he said.
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Hafiz Uddin Ahmed, also the convener of a police administration committee formed by BNP, said Bangladesh was made a police state during the regime of the deposed government but now it needs to bring out the police from that condition.
“We’ve come up with various recommendations to infuse a sense in them (police) that the police force must be sensitive towards people, respect people, consider people as the owner of the state and portrait them as servants not lords of people,” he said.
A police commission should be there to closely monitor the law enforcement agency and this commission will act as watchdog, he said.
An upazila-level citizen committee should be formed with engaging local people in every upazila to observe the activities of police and provide necessary recommendations in this regard, he added.
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The BNP leader hoped that if their recommendations are implemented, various inconsistencies and irregularities would be removed in the police force. "The relationship between police and people will improve and it will be easier for people to avail the desired services from police," he said.
He said BNP has submitted a number of recommendations to the Police Administration Reform Commission for developing the police as a corruption-free and efficient force by ensuring transparency and accountability, which would be more sensitive towards human rights.
Rab Abolishment
"We recommended abolition of Rab as the force has become much reprehensible internationally... and within the country, they have created a monster... Many murders, incidents of enforced disappearances, and extrajudicial killings were committed by Rab force,” he said.
He said the armed police battalion and the police stations should initially take over the responsibilities Rab now performs and then necessary measures should be taken here. "We think if Rab is abolished at this moment, it would send a good signal (message) to people,” he added.
Replying to a question as to why BNP doesn’t seek Rab reform instead of abolishment as the force was formed during its regime, Hafiz Uddin said, "It's also in medical science that when an organ becomes completely gangrenous and destroyed, there is no choice but to amputate it."
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About the proposed police commission, BNP suggested the chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on the home affairs ministry to act as the chairman of the commission, and in absence of parliament, a retired justice of the Supreme Court to do it. MPs from the ruling and the opposition parties, university teachers, Supreme Court lawyers, noted personalities should be there in an eight-member commission.
Former Home Affairs Secretary SM Zahurul Islam, and two former IGPs Abdul Kaium and Asraful Huda were, among others, present at the press conference.