Let the names of deceased be given

THE CMM Court’s grant of 5-day remand to the police to interrogate Adilur Rahman Khan, Secretary, Odhikar, following his arrest on Saturday night under the Information & Communication Technology (ICT) Act has shocked and outraged us. When alternative options were available to establish the veracity of a report being contested by the government, the way police acted is against democratic norms.
The allegation against him centred around Odhikar publishing a report on June 20, 2013, claiming 61 persons were killed on May 5 crackdown on Hefajat-e Islam at Motijheel. This report was also uploaded on their website.
On July 10 the ministry of information, in a letter to Odhikar, wanted a list of the 61 deceased, along with their addresses and names of their parents. On July 17, Odhikar replied that it will submit such a list only if an independent commission is set up to investigate the incident, as there is no “victim or witness protection law in Bangladesh.”
However, we fail to understand whose “protection” would have been jeopardized if names of the deceased were given, not names of those who were the “sources” of information.
As a newspaper we ourselves have reported extensively on the matter and have found no evidence of 61 people dying during the event.
While we cannot agree with Odhikar’s position of refusing to give names of the deceased we find the government’s action to be questionable. First, they could have obtained judicial guidance as to how to get to Odhikar’s sources without jeopardising their security. Secondly, it appears they have used the GD as a cover for police action. Late night swoop on the Odhikar secretary’s residence, taking him into custody and subsequently on remand smack of intimidation and arbitrary use of powers