Bangladesh human-rights commission chief questions transparency in police investigations

National Human Rights Commission Chairman Mizanur Rahman has questioned the transparency of police investigations.

Talking to reporters after visiting the Rangpur Central Jail on Thursday, he said police probe processes lacked transparency and urged the government to make law enforcers ‘more accountable’.

Rahman said: “A single person is being shown arrested more than once by forging documents. Many are being forced to give confessional statements after indictment in false cases.

“Such acts are a matter of concern for the state,” he added.

The NHRC chief urged all to take prompt action on every complaint to ensure that no citizen’s ‘freedom’ was affected due to someone’s whims.

“Many detainees have complained to me that they are not allowed to talk to their lawyers. In no way can these inhuman activities be supported.”

Rahman said the ‘very old’ Rangpur Jail had 1,969 inmates against a capacity of 1,100.

The jail hospital had already been declared abandoned as it turned hazardous.

Referring to the detention of several persons in the jail for more than 20 years, he said they should be freed under general amnesty.