Police violate HR in city's 22 thanas

The report said in the wake of opposition's April 30 deadline to oust the government, Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) collected a huge amount of money in bribe from ordinary citizens while conducting a mass-arrest crackdown by abusing section 86 of DMP Ordinance and 54 of Criminal Procedure Code.

In the name of foiling oust-government agitation, police indiscriminately picked up ordinary people from bus and railway stations, launch terminals and city slums and took bribe by threatening them to implicate in false cases, the report added.

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Police arrested about 700 people on April 18 and 2500 on April 20 from different areas, most of whom were innocent.

The report said Parimal and his friend Bipul, who came from Panchagarh to visit Dhaka, were picked by police no sooner had they stepped down from bus at Mohakhali terminal. Similarly, police arrested fruit trader Russel who came to the capital in search of a job.

Odhikar in its report said the condition of most thana hajats was terrible with stinky environment. It also witnessed police torture on the accused in the name of remand, and extracting money from the visitors and those who came to file general diary.

Sohel, 30, an accused in a murder case, alleged that he was tortured by Sabujbagh police to give a confessional statement during one-day remand.

Accused Shafiq, 32, alleged similar torture at Dhanmondi thana on April 27, Sattar, 45, at Kotwali thana on April 10 and Alam Shikdar at Shyampur thana on May12.

Police also harassed women in the custody both physically and mentally. Though it's mandatory to keep the women in separate cell, police kept them in the duty officer's room, and some time in the lobby. Children were kept with criminals charged with serious crimes.

The report further said hostile attitude and rampant bribery of the police have eroded people's trust in them and widen the people-police gap.

Odhikar, in association with Bangladesh Freedom Foundation, prepared the report after monitoring the situation at 22 thanas of the metropolitan city during the months of March, April and May.