Allegations that the recent crackdown on drugs is at times being used to settle old scores and remove longstanding adversaries are no longer mere complaints.
There is now a dead body of an AL municipality Councillor, Ekramul Haque, shot and killed, plus four audio clips that carry sounds of gunshots and what appear to be the groans of a dying person.
Ekramul’s family claims he had no link with Yaba trade or any narcotic smuggling and was slain in cold blood.
The audio clips and countless possibilities:
It’s unnerving to listen to the audio clips which are now within the public domain. It begins with what seems to be the wife of the ill-fated councillor, frantically invoking divine support and then, when the phone is received, willingly or accidentally by the pressing of the receive button, we hear gun shots followed by profanity. The woman’s voice wails, pleading the innocence of her husband. While this macabre incident is going on, there is the sound of the siren of a police car at the background.
So far, several newspapers have reported about the audio clips but none has clearly given credence to the authenticity of the tape.
But the audio tape is out and the since there is no definite evidence to prove whether the tape is genuine or not, an immediate probe into the matter appears to be the right one.
The wife of the killed AL leader held a news conference underlining the fact that her husband did not have anything to do with drugs.
This automatically raises the question: did he know anything which could have implicated someone powerful?
When the drug crackdown began, it was common knowledge that at one point, the focus would shift from the city dens and selling points to the sources near the border with Myanmar.
For some time, certain name was being pinpointed by the media with reports carrying accounts of people who identified several known faces as the masterminds, controlling the entry of Yaba into Bangladesh.
However, instead of high profile arrests, there is now a killed man, purported to have been ‘clean’ and, believed by many to have been shot deliberately.
Creating a red herring with a killing?
In the last few days, the media spotlight has shifted from the need to arrest drug lords to the immediate task of finding if Ekramul was innocent or not and, who was behind his killing.
Some quarters surmise that the killing was done, on purpose, by some sections to divert the attention from the relentless media demand to detain known drug king-pins.
Form a lay person’s perspective, at this moment, the main priority is to verify the audio clip, find out the perpetrators and take action.
“Optimising the current outrage, top masterminds will either move away from the scene, eradicate all proof of drug dealing or leave the country,” says an expatriate Bangladeshi and a former journalist.
After the death of Ekramul, his wife held a press conference and though she repeatedly pleaded her late husband’s innocence, refrained from mentioning any earlier enmity or feud which might have been the cause.
Perhaps she did not speak up fearing for her life – which was a prudent thing to do.
The ‘killing’ done to undermine the drug crackdown?
With the absence of concrete evidence, a variety of possible explanations proliferate. There is also a belief that Ekramul could have been killed to stir up public backlash aimed at compelling the authority to suspend the current anti-drug campaign.
As the audio tape’s veracity cannot be established and there aren’t any images, anything can be taken as a plausible premise in which Ekramul was shot. The entire episode could have been staged to implicate the law; it could have been real law enforcers acting like renegades or, it could have been forces not linked to law carrying out the murder at the order of someone behind the curtain.
At this point, with only the tapes available, it would not be right to take any of these possibilities as the absolute fact.
In the wake of the killing, the home ministry has pledged investigation, which needs to happen immediately.
Whether Ekramul was associated with drug business or not, the bottom line remains, a man with a social position was shot and killed.
Firstly, from the angle of maintaining social order, the truth needs to be found out. Secondly, this killing investigation carries more importance since it is linked to illegal narcotics.
If the law enforcers are found to be complicit, then punishment has to be severe and swift; on the other hand, if it’s discovered in the course of the probe that Ekramul was silenced because he knew about the main drug lords of the area plus their elaborate operation, then that has to be made public.
War on drugs should continue but…
In this ongoing drug war, all of us are with the government because unless there is a firm drive, this menace cannot be contained.
However, in the name of uprooting drug dealers, innocent people must not be targeted.
Also, the time has come to move away from grass root level purging. Drug lords can be nabbed if phones are tapped, twenty four hour surveillance is ordered and bank accounts/spending habits checked. In certain cases, home searches have to be carried out.
In Bangladesh, during Eid season, the common social norm is to put everything aside as the day of celebration draws near. In our anticipation for the joyous occasion, grave issues are often sidelined with the rising euphoria plus long holidays triggering a collective languor.
The drug war has to go on but let’s not neglect the death of Ekramul; the killing has to be investigated because there is an audiotape available.
The general people are more or less supportive of the robust move though there is a lot of disenchantment among the masses when responsible people in authority flout the rules of neutrality in a time of crisis and blatantly take sides of persons who have been known to be related to unethical dealings.
Keeping the heart-wrenching cries of the wife in mind, it’s this nation’s duty to find out the actual events leading to Ekramul’s death.
For the late councillor’s two daughters, happiness of Eid is over; at least we can give them truth and justice to make our pursuit of joys a little less selfish.
Towheed Feroze is a journalist, teaching at the University of Dhaka.