Parallel justice
Major Khalid Moinuddin (retired) from Australia
This letter is not in response to the editorial published today (15 February 05), rather an echo of million souls. There is euphoria among general people for returning to relatively safer social environment. Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) has so far successfully fulfilled its mission i.e. reducing the crime-spree, if not eliminating it. In the process of crime elimination, many of the notorious criminals have been killed in "crossfire" or "encounter". However, not everyone is happy about the affair and is terming "crossfire" or "encounter" as extra-judicial killing. Large portions of this section are lawyers including Dr. Kamal Hussain. Ironically, Dr. Kamal Hussain and his fellow lawyers completely failed to bring these criminals to justice. The failure also lies with law enforcers. Constitutional laws have hardly been implemented due to the failures of police and law-practitioners as well as evil influence of politicians. Under these circumstances, the actions of Rab are blessings for common people. It would have never been possible to conduct trials of Picchi Hannan, Ahmadya, David and others, as it was not possible for Sweden Aslam, Subrata Bain etc. Who has the courage to testify against these notorious criminals in the courtroom? Efforts to establish rule of law failed time and again. Sweden Aslam still controls (reportedly) the underworld from the prison. Therefore it is imperative to resort to a parallel justice system-- to bring peace and stability. Rab has been extremely careful in target selection and no innocent person has been affected so far. Human rights violation is a far cry when common people had no guarantee for normal death and their lives were full of fear and uncertainty. Simplification of judicial proceedings is not easy at all. There are some obvious loopholeswhich can't be eliminated. I have already given some examples above. Furthermore laws are made to give benefit of doubt to defendants so that no innocent man is wrongfully punished. I would like to thank the Honourable Prime Minister for her bold step. So far Rab has not given any concession to her (seasonal) party followers--we earnestly hope and pray that she will remain steadfast in her neutral role.
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