The baffling investigation of the BDR carnage
The truth must be found. Photo: Amdadul Huq/ Drik News
IT can be said with some amount of certitude that never before had the criminal investigation agency of the country been beset with such a massive task -- the unearthing of the multidimensional crimes committed on February 25 at the BDR headquarters. The enormity of the assignment can be gauged from the comments of external investigating experts to the effect that between 200 and 400 investigators would be required to adequately investigate the occurrence. The fact that our CID does not have adequate personnel to properly investigate incidents of such unusual dimension is now clear. The CID has requested Police Headquarters to depute additional manpower to meet the shortfall. Such a scenario gives rise to many questions and apprehensions. First of all, will the CID get properly trained personnel to do the exacting and complex investigation expeditiously? Secondly, how strong is the pool of expert investigators that has been developed over the preceding years? Thirdly, how badly has the organisation's performances with regard to other sensational cases suffered due to the reported whole-time preoccupation with the BDR incident? The queries and doubts raised are not without ground and significance because the taxpayers need to know if we have failed to empower the supreme investigative outfit of the country at our own peril. Venturing into specifics, it is important to know if we have made timely allocation of resources to strengthen the technical capability of the investigators, thereby encouraging and nurturing a scientific temperament. A crisis of the proportion of the BDR carnage has exposed us to a situation where lapses and deficits will not be condoned by the families of the victims nor the nation as a whole. It is definitely time to comfort the afflicted and afflict the perilously comfortable. Though not made public for obvious reasons, those in the know of things tell us that investigators from distant shores have been surprised to see the paucity of our resources in fighting and unearthing serious crimes. Howsoever disappointing and galling this may be to our national prestige, it is time to locate the deficits and take adequate remedial actions without any further delay. It would also be important in the process to pin-point the unthinking comfortable in the corridors of power in public interest. Law enforcement throughout the world has two major dimensions, that of crime and public order, though the two cannot be placed in watertight compartments. Experts tell us that imbalance in allocation of resources between these two areas will be harmful insofar as it relates to the objective of proper maintenance of law and order. In Bangladesh, we have attached disproportionate importance to the so-called maintenance of public order at the expense of overlooking crime prevention and scientific investigation. Thus, we see more personnel for political intelligence collection, security of VIPs including the foreign diplomats, riot police establishment and the so-called elite units. Capital investments for public order situation have been accorded priority over similar expenditures for improving scientific skills of the investigator. The armoured car has been more important than the forensic laboratory. In a scenario as above, the professionals and the politicians have to share the blame, but perhaps the politicians are more to blame. This is so because enforcement leadership had to satisfy the political boss's requirement. To the political leadership the political opposition is the graver threat and, as such, greater resources have to be deployed to counter that scourge. The political executive is the authority, and he has the last say. The above observations do not mean that things are irreversible or irreconcilable, or that we have reached a precipice. In fact, it is time to initiate a pragmatic and beneficial discussion involving all stakeholders to fix our order of priorities in the law and order enforcement sector. It may be appropriate now to know about the enormous sums of public money that have to be spent to counter public order threats caused by hartals and other such situations. One needs to know how many such harmful events could be avoided to save public money that could be used elsewhere for tangible public relief. Equally important is to reduce the public order situation by means of discussion between the politicians. It may be an occasion now for our politicians to examine the deficits of our investigative skills in the public interest. In fine, there has to be an intelligent and pragmatic understanding of our law and order requirements. Allocation of more resources for enhancing our investigative abilities should be a priority. Such allocation should be considered an investment in the planning process as expenditures in this area would produce handsome returns, in addition to firmly establishing our credentials in the primary regulatory function. Muhammad Nurul Huda is a columnist of The Daily Star.
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