Editorial
'Blanket' arrests
When will govt learn to avoid it?
The High Court injunction on arrest of citizens without warrant under the Dhaka Metropolitan Police Ordinance has brought to the fore the issue of misapplication of the law that is abhorrent to democratic sensibilities. The court has also directed the government to go by the former's guidelines issued in April 2003 pertaining to exercise of powers of arrest under section 54 of the CrPC and section 86 of the DMP Ordinance. The HC has reacted for the second time to blanket arrests that the law enforcers have been resorting to as a pre-emptive move. The question is, why would the government need to be told one time too many by the court that it should dispense with this kind of mass arrests? Any democratic government is expected to be auto-sensitive to the need for remaining within the bounds of the law which forbids arrest without warrant. The point has become all the more relevant because the government is meeting opposition demonstrations, particularly the large ones, with predictable aggressive measures that have twofold political fallout, neither being conducive to a stable democratic order. First, such measures are a blatant violation of the law of the land both in its spirit and letter. And this alone is cause for great concern since the rule of law is an inseparable part of democratic governance. Secondly, the belligerence on the part of the powers that be only exacerbates the already tense political situation. The politics of confrontation which is having a crippling effect on the nation as a whole can only worsen when such arrests are made. Denial of any space to the opposition is antithetical to the standard norms of democracy. The intervention by the highest judiciary does prove that the fundamental rights of citizens are being encroached upon by what has been termed "unwarranted and abusive exercise of powers". This is precisely the point that the government has to take note of. Clearly, laws are not meant for harassing citizens.
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