The High Court has ordered transfer of investigation into attacks on religious minorities in Bangladesh before and after the Jan 5 general elections to either the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of police or any other agency.
Published : 26 Feb 2014, 08:58 PM
The bench of Justice Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque and Justice ABM Altaf Hossain on Wednesday gave the order after going through several police reports on the hate attacks.
On Jan 15, the bench had issued a ruling on its own volition taking into account newspaper reports on tortures inflicted upon the religious minorities.
It asked police to file reports on the attacks.
Members of the Hindu community had come under a string of attacks in Bangladesh before and after the 10th parliamentary polls. The government and main opposition BNP had exchanged charges over the attacks.
Wednesday’s order came after police filed 15 reports on attacks on religious minorities in 13 districts.
Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Biswajit Roy, who stood in for the state at the hearing, told journalists that the court had given the order expressing discontent over probe progress and arrest of the accused.
According to the reports people not accused in cases over the attacks had been arrested. In several instances, none had been arrested. Moreover, several cases had been filed under the sections that have minimum chances of punishing the perpetrators.
The court ordered probing the incidents by either the CID or any other law-enforcing agency to bring the perpetrators to book, the DAG said.
The Inspector General of Police has been asked to implement the order and file a report within Apr 3.