Law enforcement officers in any nation, are supposed to serve and protect. This means ordinary citizens need to be able to see uniformed personnel as friends and not foes. However, in Bangladesh, there exists a deep distrust of the police and other law enforcement agencies.
With good reason, of course -- heavy-handed behaviour from the police at numerous check-posts around the capital, and unwarranted use of force and verbal abuse result in, more often than not, innocent civilians being subjected to a great amount of harassment.
This is unacceptable.
However, the recent case of a man in the capital being harassed by two policemen -- Assistant Sub-Inspectors Jakaria and Alamgir -- shows that our law enforcement is indeed trying to improve things.
The two policemen reportedly implicated the innocent man by mistake and held him despite his protestations, and it is good to see that the SIs in question are now being investigated, with punitive action being considered for their excessive actions if found guilty.
While it goes without saying that the officers should probably have exercised restraint in the matter -- an important quality in any good police officer -- it is good to know that the matter is indeed being investigated by the authorities.
The strained relationship between our law enforcement and the general public needs to be addressed, and the onus lies on the top brass of our law enforcement agencies.
In a country with a history of unexplained disappearances, custodial abuse, extra-judicial killings, and deep levels of corruption, it is now more important than ever that the authorities take every measure possible to restore the people’s faith into the goodness of our police force.
Widespread police reform may sound like a Herculean task, but it is an issue that we cannot afford to dance around any longer.
