The above-mentioned most unfortunate incident is under enquiry and investigation and we are given to understand that the National Shooting Federation is set to register a criminal case for punishing the guilty. Such actions once initiated must be followed to its logical end. In their course of action the aggrieved will have the support of right-thinking citizens across the country.

Till now, concerned police authority has taken administrative action like suspension of the delinquent head constable and assigning a Joint Commissioner of Police to enquire into the incident and submit a report within one week. The National Shooting Federation is headed by a veteran ex-bureaucrat who is well-versed in law and procedures, in addition to being a pragmatic administrator. It is thus expected that the matter would be pursued in right earnest. In saying so it is meant that if legal action is necessary as is prima-facie likely, then that should be in addition to departmental action.

Concerned citizens have wondered if some responsible police officer could have said sorry after the incident while assuring everybody about a prompt and fair enquiry. However, saying sorry perhaps does not fit in with our behaviour pattern, particularly in the establishment culture. No wonder, therefore, that the honorable State Minister for Home Affairs and the Police Commissioner, Dhaka Metropolitan Police, according to media reports, came very heavily in support of the alleged delinquent police personnel, stating that the law-enforcers were first beaten and the whole incident erupted thereafter. Under the circumstances, accurate apportioning of blame and thus fixing culpability would be time-consuming. We will no doubt have the benefit of full facts after a comprehensive enquiry but judging by past conduct and the indiscriminate actions of recent past the accusing finger would remain pointed towards the policemen. This is an unfortunate scenario with which saner individuals and conscientious law-enforcers of our society have to grapple.

The fact that should seriously bother us is whether Bangladeshis may have to accept excesses committed by uniformed men, particularly the police, as a pathetic recurrent reality and if our political culture should continue to provide incentive to such regressive actions. We may also find it relevant to find out the causes of suspected slackening of discipline in the police force.

Recent events involving the high-handed and apparently lawless police actions are inevitably further tarnishing an already battered police image. Paradoxically, in our situation, such lawless police officers are in high demand by our politicians to serve their partisan interests. Police behavioural norms that are generally admired are those of 'tough' rather than 'controlled' behaviour. The ideal police culture in a democratic society governed by the rule of law implies that a policeman discharges the statutory duties in accordance with the dictates of law. Therefore, the police are supposed not only to operate under the constraints of law but within the bounds of civilised conduct also.

Bangladesh's police culture has suffered devastating blows and contemporary police culture is far away from the ideal police culture. In particular, the recent misdeeds of police, indulged in fearsome frequency, are unfortunately not leaving any responsible citizen in any doubt about the ugly shape Bangladesh's police culture has willy-nilly acquired. The country witnesses the policeman misusing his position and thus violating the trust of the public. This cannot be allowed to continue because the police organisation needs to be saved from sinking beyond retrieval. There is an imperative to make our police jettison the contemporary police culture and adopt the desired measures.

The cynics may say that Bangladesh police is beyond socially desirable repair and that it should be allowed to drift rudderless till our tolerant society including its incorrigible politicians are knocked out of the pervasive narcotic illusion into a much desired pragmatic realisation. That would be a resigning attitude bordering on fatalism of the worst sort and would definitely be extremely frustrating for those brave Bangladeshi optimists who have not stopped dreaming despite the ominous odds.

If we take stock of the prevalent situation, we will find that the main problem with the police is that they have lost the trust and confidence of the people. There is a general sense of alienation and fear mixed with hatred. This has given rise to an adversarial relationship between the police and the people. Even after 35 years of independence, the people have no sense of participation in the process of governance. They are mere chattels, who have no self-respect or dignity. They cannot demand protection or security as a matter of right. They can at bast request, beseech, or beg.

The highhandedness, inaccessibility, incompetence and callousness of the police are undoubtedly matters of extreme concern because our police are not dealing with people as friends. The police, in the Indian sub-continent including Bangladesh have no tradition of serving the community and understanding its needs. One reason of such attitude is that our police force is organised on the Royal Irish Constabulary model as against London's Metropolitan Police model. We have not made a beginning to change this model in order to humanise the force. Instead, we have moved in the reverse direction. Our police have become more brutal.

In Bangladesh, unfortunately, there is no agreement among the different segments of the society as to what is expected or wanted from our police agency. In such a situation, our policemen indulge in doing things which they ought not to do or in refraining from doing things they ought to do, to favour politicians in power and ask the politicians-in-power to use their influence to obtain choice postings, to avoid being transferred, to mitigate disciplinary sentences or to earn advancement in rank. Thus a necessary basis is provided for a mutually advantageous barter. This give-and-take between the police and the politicians thrives because superintendence and control over the police rests in the political executive.

To satisfy the political executive our policemen indulge in third degree methods and thus not only brutalise themselves but also degrade their own selves to the level of a criminal. This happens despite the fact that the law of the land punishes the practice of third degree with a punishment of 7 to 10 years of imprisonment. Interference with the statutory duties of police like maintenance of public order and investigation of cases are not forthrightly deprecated. It is not realised that statutory provisions must prevail over executive directions.

Our politicians betray a pathetic lack of appreciation of the imperative that the foundation of a civilized society depends upon the effective and impartial working of some corrective institutions, prominent among which is the public service. They appear to be perilously oblivious to the reality that the regulatory outfit of police must be demonstrably impartial to ensure public confidence in the governance ability of the ruling class. The ruling parties in their misplaced exuberance forget that the police was the dominant visible symbol of repressive imperial alien power and that de-colonisation requires large-scale behavioural and attitudinal changes of the political masters and the public servants belonging to this vital organ of the state. Thus while admonitions from the pulpit come in plenty for rational behaviour on the part of enforcement officials, in reality, unhealthy pressures are regularly exerted to carry out the wishes of the ruling coterie in the most expeditious manner. It is the continuance of such regressive mentality that has brought us to the present lamentable scenario wherein the police outfit has been described as a lackey of the political government. Nothing could be more sad and frustrating than that.

The governance scenario will not register positive improvements if the principal regulatory outfit shows signs of decadence. Many of us including the political masters do not realise that the police as an agency of the state is expected to be the relief-provider. So if appropriately motivated and competent personnel do not man the organisation, who is going to provide the much-needed relief to the common folks? Coming to the unpalatable specifics of getting an appointment in police ranks by greasing the palms of the influential, one may say with a degree of certitude that appointees from such process mostly turn into bitter individuals from the very start. Only the affected and the insiders know the extent of financial hardship experienced by the ordinary people in such dubious exercise.

So when bitter individuals occupy positions of coercive power, the result cannot be wholesome. The minds and motivations of such individuals remain preoccupied with the compulsions of recouping their initial investment at the earliest. Quite naturally, the lure of the lucre takes its toll. The imperatives of acting neutrally and with sympathy and compassion recede into the background. No wonder therefore that many of our police stations are not sympathetic listening posts from where the people can expect service delivery.

We have to remember that the police are vested with the authority to use legitimate force against the citizens and this mandate to use force to curb violence raises the key issue that the police themselves should not indulge in unnecessary violence or excessive use of force. The task before the supervisors should be to ensure that the police use force and authority with restraint and only in unavoidable circumstances. While the ultimate accountability of the police is to the people, the police must respect the law of the land. They are not licenced to become law-breakers themselves. Let the most visible symbol of governmental authority be a helping arm for the public instead of being a coercive arm of the state.

Muhammad Nurul Huda is a former Secretary and IGP.