“Gun-fight” and bail

July 15th, 2016 at 7:15 pm

By Nadeem Qadir;

The death of militant Golam Faizullah Fahim in a “gun-fight” with police during a combing operation has raised many questions and reminded me how some of the courts had issued bail orders to free this culprits.

Bangladesh, it appears is in a catch-22 situation. On one hand you are told stop the targeted killings and when you take steps, pressure is created on the modus-operandi.

The 18-year-old college-student-turned-militant was handcuffed when found dead. Thus the logic of him being involved in the shooting does not sell, but police never said that. Police said he was killed during an operation where he was present. Two bullets possibly hit him during the gun-fight and he died.

Golam Saifullah Fahim was arrested and later killed in reported gunfight

The other side of the story is that Fahim was simply shot dead because police thought he was a danger to the state and if he had returned to his militancy after getting easy bail would add more trouble than if he was dead.

The most important factor is none of his fellow militants came to his rescue and did not even mourn his death.

This is a clear message to his cohorts that if you are caught you are dead duck and thus choose life or death, because now it was not only security forces, but the people who are angry and are reacting.

Fahim was caught while fleeing after trying to kill a Hindu teacher in Madaripur. He left his home during his college-leaving (HSC)tests telling his parents he was going abroad. He was influenced by the so-called Islamic State and found Hizbut Tahrir the organisation to fulfil his dream.

Do our readers know that in the United States, the champion of Human Rights, such “gun-fights” take place almost daily.

According to estimates found on the web the number of such deaths in 2015 was more than 1,000 with majority being black Americans.

Now, if we look at reports on the arrests and bails, it is clear that many militants were netted over the years, but vanished after getting bail. The terror groups have enough finance to get a lawyer for bailing out these militants.

The courts should be tougher on militants and a law must be enacted quickly to kake arrests on militancy or related matters should be made non-bailable.

A friend of mine who has had the experience of killing criminals in “cross-fire” or “gun-fights” told me that he had no regrets. “Each time I killed a criminal I patted my own back as I have made my country free from one evil.”

“The court bails are so frustrating that after lot of efforts we nab a criminal and before we even could celebrate, he is out on bail … thus killings in these ways might seem inhuman but we have no choice. It happens in many countries of the world,” he told me with lot of pride.

I agreed with him after knowing the background story, even though I feel everybody has the right to justice. But if a law allows bail then the courts are helpless and such killings of notorious criminals will continue.

You cannot ask for stopping crimes and then send out statements condemning actions taken. I was surprised by the statement issued by the Human Rights Watch and the country’s out-of-parliament opposition party BNP on the arrests during the anti-crime drive.

Also, Fahim’s arrest brings out the fact that he was the member of Jamaat-e-islami’ student wing initially and then switched to Tahrir. His parents were ignorant about his activities. Thus there is a lot to do for all parents to keep an eye on their children to reduce these crimes.

What we now have to wait and see, how successful our security forces are in stopping the killings and what major information they could bring out of Fahim, before he was killed. The courts, on the other hand must be alert against granting bails to these elements who area a danger to the society and the country.