Abuse of Police Power and Investigation in Pakistan. Acomparative Analysis with Indai and Bangladesh

ABUSE OF POLICE POWER AND INVESTIGATION IN PAKISTAN. A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS WITH INDIA AND BANGLADESH A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO POSTGRADUATE INSTITUTE OF LAW University of Lahore THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF LL.M. (Master of Laws) Submitted by: Jamshad Qamar S/O Muhammad Din Registration No. A.LLM010148300 Supervised by: Dr. RRH LL.B., LL.M., PH.D. (Law) Director & Dean POSTGRADUATE INSTITUTE OF LAW, UNIVERSITY OF LAHORE POSTGRADUATE INSTITUTE OF LAW UNIVERSITY OF LAHORE 2021 DECLARATION I, Jamshad Qamar, a student of LL.M. of Postgraduate Institute of Law, University Of Lahore with Registration No. A.LLM010148300, do hereby declare that this dissertation paper is an original work of mine and is result of my own intellectual efforts. I have quoted titles of all original sources i.e. original documents and name of the authors whose work has helped me in writing this research paper have been placed at appropriate places. I have not infringed copy rights of any other author. Date ------------- (Jamshad Qamar) Place – Lahore ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I feel proud to acknowledge the able guidance of our esteemed Dr. Rao Raza Hashim. I acknowledge with pleasure unparalleled infrastructural support that I have received from Postgraduate Institute of Law (PIL) - UNIVERSITY OF LAHORE. In fact this work is the outcome of outstanding support that I have received from the faculty members of PIL. This research work bears testimony to the active encouragement and guidance of a host of friends and well-wishers. In particular mention must be made of Mr Abid Hussain. It would never have been possible to complete this study without an untiring support from my family. I am greatly indebted to the various writers, jurists and all others from whose writings and work I have taken help to complete this dissertation. Date…………. A.LLM010148300 Place: Lahore (Jamshad Qamar) PREFACE The topic on “Abuse of police power and investigation in Pakistan. A comparative analysis with India and Bangladesh” is taken with a view to analyze in detail the existing system. Brief overview of the chapters is as follows: Chapter 1: Introduction deals with ‘background and historical perspective’. In this chapter the researcher has given a brief overview of the project topic including its objective and scope and also discusses in brief the research problem to be addressed by the project. Chapter 2: Abuse of Police Power and Investigation in Pakistan: Deals with abuse of Police Power and Investigation in Pakistan. Chapter 3: Abuse of Police Power and Investigation in India: This chapter deals with abuse of Police Power and Investigation in India. Chapter 4: Abuse of Police Power and Investigation in Bangladesh: This chapter deals the abuse of Police Power and Investigation in Bangladesh. Chapter 5: Deals with Conclusions and Suggestions as to the abuse of police power and investigation in Pakistan. a comparative analysis with India and Bangladesh. Bibliography LIST OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Research Objective 2 The major objective of the study will be: 2 1.2 Hypothesis/Research Question 3 1.3 Significance of the study 3 1.4 Research Methodology 3 Chapter 2 5 Abuse of Police Power and Investigation in Pakistan 5 2.1 Introduction 5 2.2 Current Legal Situation 6 2.3 Torture and other Cruel, Inhumane, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment 7 2.4 Arbitrary Arrest, Detention, or Exile 7 2.5 Enhanced Security Concerns 7 2.6 2002 Amendment to The Anti-Terrorism Act-1997 8 2.7 RECENT CHANGES IN THE POLICE AND ADMINISTRATIVE STRUCTURE OF THE COUNTRY 8 2.8 Police torture: A product of Pakistan's authoritarian political values 13 2.9 Symbols of law and terror 15 2.11 Call for institutional introspection 20 2.11.1 Police abuse corrupts institutional memory: 21 2.11.2 Politicisation of policing 21 2.11.3 Roots of custodial deaths 22 2.11.4 Police legitimacy: 22 2.11.5 Subculture of policing: 22 Chapter 3 24 Abuse of Police Power and Investigation in India 24 3.3 Human Rights Violations by Police 26 3.3.1 Failure to Register Complaints and Investigate Crime 26 3.3.2 Illegal Arrest and Detention, Police Torture and Ill-Treatment 27 3.4 Obstacles to Police Accountability 30 3.4.1 Overhaul police structures and improve working conditions 31 3.4.2 Enforce the law and hold abusers accountable for violations 32 3.5 The Deteriorating State of the Indian Police 33 3.6 Colonial Legacies and the Failure to Modernize 34 3.6.1 A Dangerous State of Disrepair 36 3.6.2 Poor Infrastructure 36 3.6.3 Another police officer told Human Rights Watch: 38 Chapter 4: 41 Abuse of Police Power and Investigation in Bangladesh 41 4.1 Recounting similar incidents of the past 41 4.2 Current Situation, Problems and Countermeasures Against the Abuse of Power 45 4.3 Custodial death 45 4.4 Constitution of Bangladesh 46 Chapter 5 47 CONCLUSION 47 BIBLIOGRAPHY 48 ABSTRACT Police force is regarded as one of the most important internal security forces given a mission to monitor law and order situation in the country and curb any sort of violent or criminal activities. The term "Police Abuse" it-self sounds awkward and contradictory, but it refers to a situation where allegedly this law enforcing agency is involved in violating rights of the public and is involved in some sort of misuse or over use of its powers, hence troubling the general public in one way or the other. This qualitative study is based on in-depth interviews with different stakeholders (including the Police force it-self) identified by the researchers and tries to integrate their responses and explore different forms of such alleged violence and importantly investigate potential circumstances where this over use of power is justified or is given protection. Different stakeholders have different opinion on the subject under study. CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Abuse is that aspect of any culture which is always discouraged by sane elements of the society. Violent behavior is seen as deviant and a taboo in majority scenarios. Violence may have several forms in general i.e. extending from simple verbally aggressive comments to physically violating someone’s boundary. Police violence is described as excessive use of force by the Police. There is not much distinction available as to what excessive use is and what appropriate use is. This ambiguity results in some stakeholders claiming the use of force as legitimate. In Pakistan, the phenomenon of police brutality is not new to the general public; “rather the police department has over the years become a symbol of fright and terror that gives rise to feelings of mistrust and helplessness in the common man” (Lead-Pakistan). In many societies this violence is considered a legitimate means of asserting power, establishing order, disciplining, and punishing the wrong doers. Unfortunately, violence and intolerance is increasing in Pakistan and therefore requires to be addressed. We come across stories and incidents in print and electronic media regarding violence and illegitimate force used by Police every now and then. There are several forms of this phenomenon and as per literature Police Violence is not just limited to beating protestors and use of tear gas but it also includes torture led killings in police custody and importantly extra judicial killings. The research is significant in Pakistani context because, firstly this area has not been addressed as far as research or empirical evidence is concerned. This study helps in understanding what are different forms of police violence, what are the motivations for such actions and importantly how and when this apparently a negative action be justified and approved by competent authorities i.e. is the law silent on this issue; is the law manipulated when it comes to personal interests of stakeholders (particularly politicians in government) and, is use of force and power the only sources to ensure discipline. Police abuse and their perceptions of the fairness and effectiveness, and their beliefs about the legitimacy of the police. Their findings suggest that in Pakistan’s context where ‘minimal effectiveness and integrity is yet to be established, police legitimacy may rest not just on the procedural fairness of officers, but also on their demonstrated ability to control crime and avoid abuse’. The main emphasis of their research is, nevertheless, on police legitimacy and not adequately studying the causes of police abuse. Political influence on police is widespread in South Asia. Noted that ‘it has been commonplace in India for transfers and postings of officers to be used as a kind of reward and punishment, as a result of which, many chiefs of police have had allegiances to political parties.’ In Bangladesh also, political influence contributes to police abuse. In Bangladesh, the influence of political elites affiliated with drug traffickers on police has resulted in bribery, extortion, and ethnic favouritism. 1.1 Research Objective The major objective of the study will be: To analyze the abuse of police power and investigation in Pakistan with India and Bangladesh. To comparison the abuse of police power and investigation in Pakistan with India and Bangladesh. To understand the historical and legal perspective of abuse of police power and investigation in Pakistan. a comparative analysis with India and Bangladesh. 1.2 Hypothesis/Research Question Whether the arbitral authority or the arbitral procedure was not in accordance with the agreement of the parties Whether the arbitration agreement was not valid or parties to the agreement were under some incapacity? What was the lack of due process at the time of the appointment of the arbitrator or at the time of the arbitration proceedings? Whether the enforcement of the award will result in violation of the public policy? 1.3 Significance of the study The abuse of police power and investigation is an issue of fundamental interest both for Pakistan and for rest of the world. Pakistan, which is in dire need of international investment and access to international markets for its products is required to come out with strong and predictable mechanism for enforcement of international commercial dispute resolution. So this research attempted to meet this requirement of Pakistan. On the other hand, this research has provided guidelines, by critically examining practices of other countries, to the existing enforcement mechanism in Pakistan. 1.4 Research Methodology Researcher in this work has been done having relied mainly on ‘Qualitative Method’ of research. The methodology adopted for the present seminar paper is doctrinal, analytical and descriptive. The researcher mainly depended on the primary sources like Statutes and Research Committee Report and secondary sources like books, articles, journals, case laws and websites. Opinions of research scholars, professors, experts in respective fields and opinions of advocates who have dealt with this subject are used as real contribution to this work. Internet has provided with a major contribution of most relevant and latest information on the web which has helped the researcher to explore the subject through various dimensions. 1.5 Scheme for the Research The topic on “Abuse of Police Power and Investigation in Pakistan. A Comparative Analysis with India And Bangladesh” is taken with a view to analyze in detail the existing system. Brief overview of the chapters is as follows: Chapter 1: Introduction deals with ‘background and historical perspective’. In this chapter the researcher has given a brief overview of the project topic including its objective and scope and also discusses in brief the research problem to be addressed by the project. Chapter 2: Abuse of Police Power and Investigation in Pakistan: Deals with abuse of Police Power and Investigation in Pakistan. Chapter 3: Abuse of Police Power and Investigation in India: This chapter deals with abuse of Police Power and Investigation in India. Chapter 4: Abuse of Police Power and Investigation in Bangladesh: This chapter deals the abuse of Police Power and Investigation in Bangladesh. Chapter 5: Deals with Conclusions and Suggestions as to the abuse of police power and investigation in Pakistan. a comparative analysis with India and Bangladesh. Chapter 2 Abuse of Police Power and Investigation in Pakistan The colonial legacy of being ruled of the colonizer meant that for most developing countries, law enforcement agencies, especially the police, have yield- ed great power. Pakistan falls into this category, as police for the benefit excesses have always been a problem. This article examines the extralegal activities of police in Pakistan, and the way the recent administrative and legal changes in the country, although well intentioned, have the potential to strengthen police without enhancing accountability. However, if the proper changes are introduced, the right balance can be struck between the need for police to have operational independence and the need for demonstrable accountability. Recently, the government of Pakistan has made efforts to improve the police force nationwide. These efforts have not yet improved the image of the police in the public eye. The common person’s perception is that the police more often exploit the victim rather than go after the criminal. Reports in the press about police torture are still commonplace, despite recent efforts by the authorities to improve police accountability. However, the silver lining is that the police officers involved in torture are being punished and that the Government is making efforts to hold the police accountable. 2.1 Introduction In Pakistan, the way a person is treated in the police precinct is reflective of the local power structure of the area. In the case of a minor theft or injury, most citizens do not report the crime for fear that the police will engage in extortion. The extra-legal use of police for state purposes is rare, however, the use of torture and illegal detention by police is believed to be done for personal gain and to cover inefficiency. Corruption is the root cause of this phenomenon. Any perusal of the newspapers, reports of national and international human rights NGOs, and reports such as the U.S. State Department’s annual human rights report will illustrate that the police in Pakistan routinely misuse their powers. As explained later in this article, the recent changes in the legal and administrative structure of the country have made the police more powerful, without making them more accountable. Police in South Asia have traditionally been used as an instrument for furthering state policy objectives. The Mughals and rulers before them were absolute monarchs and did not believe themselves answerable to the citizenry. The British, who enjoyed democracy at home, did not consider the virtue important enough to be exported to their colonies. As a foreign colonizer, they needed both the military as well as para-military forces, including the police, to control the local populace in the interests of the state. Consequently, the main purpose of the police was not to fulfill a function of the state toward its people, but rather to keep law and order in the interests of the colonizer. This naturally set the background for the modern day police forces in today’s South Asia. One of the most important legacies of British colonization is the institution of bureaucracy, and the police force is a part of that legacy. Therefore, at the time of independence there was a strong bureaucracy and weak governance, which resulted in a lack of accountability mechanisms. 2.2 Current Legal Situation Pakistan is a signatory to the un charter, which mentions the promotion and protection of human rights as one of its objectives. Pakistan is also a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The UDHR is a declaration, and therefore nonbinding under international law. However, over the last half century legal experts have come to believe that most of it has become part of customary international law. Customary international law is state practice that states in general have come to accept as law, and therefore consider themselves bound by it. The UDHR contains provisions on two broad categories of rights: civil and political rights, and economic, social and cultural rights. Civil and political rights “include the right to life, liberty, and security of persons; the prohibition of slavery, of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment; the right not to be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile; the right to a fair trial in both civil and criminal matters; the presumption of innocence and the prohibition against the application of ex post facto laws and penalties.” 2.3 Torture and other Cruel, Inhumane, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment The Constitution of Pakistan forbids torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment. Although incidents of police torture have decreased over the past few years, the leading national human rights NGO in Pakistan, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), reports that, “the use of torture was extremely widespread in the country—with both police and prison officials responsible for inflicting it.” Some human rights groups are of the opinion that this decrease is reflective of the influence of the army monitoring teams, which discourage the use of torture. These monitoring teams were instituted in 2000 to ensure good performance by civil departments. 2.4 Arbitrary Arrest, Detention, or Exile Article 10 of the Constitution of Pakistan prohibits arbitrary arrest and detention. However, the police are often accused of arbitrarily arresting and detaining citizens. There are reports that the junior police officials at Inspector level and below illegally detain suspects in order to extort money from them and often move prisoners from one police station to another if they suspect a surprise visit by higher police authorities. 2.5 Enhanced Security Concerns Due to the tragic and unfortunate events of September 11, 2001, the worldwide security situation has changed, and internationally security concerns sometimes outweigh human rights concerns. As a result, police forces have gained increased power in countries all over the world, including Pakistan. It is assumed by law enforcement agencies that security can only be ensured at the cost of curtailment of some human and due process rights. Conversely, in the opinion of leading international human rights NGOs such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, security consists of not only protection from politically motivated violence but also of protection from arbitrary detention, freedom of expression, and security of due process rights, among other rights. It is therefore important that a state should provide both kinds of security to its people. 2.6 2002 Amendment to The Anti-Terrorism Act-1997 The Amendment to the 1997 Anti–Terrorism Act of Pakistan (Act) allows the detention of people suspected to be terrorists for up to one year. It also allows for investigation of the accounts and property of suspects. The Act defines a terrorist act very broadly. All laws which infringe on the citizen’s liberty need to be narrowly defined, otherwise there is a possibility of their misuse by the police. The state in the post-September 11 scenario rightly feels that it needs to strengthen its security apparatus to protect its citizens from politically motivated violence. However, it should be done in such a way that due process rights are not affected and police personnel are not given a loophole to misuse their powers. 2.7 RECENT CHANGES IN THE POLICE AND ADMINISTRATIVE STRUCTURE OF THE COUNTRY Pakistan is a federation with four separate provinces and one federally administered area. In the police structure each of these divisions is headed by an inspector-general of police. The smallest administrative unit is the thana, or police precinct, headed by a police inspector. The Government of President Pervez Musharraf, introduced certain reforms into the administrative structure of the country and replaced the 1896 Police Act with the Police Ordinance 2002 (Ordinance). This Ordinance has brought about many needed changes in the century old Police Act. However, the new Police Ordinance does not fully meet the requirements of the time and has in some ways made the police stronger, especially in conjunction with the recently introduced Devolution Plan, which has brought about major administrative changes at the district level. There is much to commend in the Devolution Plan, as it is based upon the democratic principle of local participation in governance. However, the flip side of the current situation is that it leaves the police more powerful and less accountable. Interestingly, the Nazim, the political head of district government under the Devolution Plan, has little control over the police. This is juxtaposed with, for example, a mayor in the United States of America who usually has significant control over public departments of the city. The Nazim has a supervisory role over the police, but lacks enforcement power. If the objective is to devolve power to the local level, then an important aspect of devolution is the maintenance of law and order, which has been denied to the elected Nazim. A significant number of police officers in Pakistan are federal employees and are lent to the provincial governments for posting as police officers. If they are not under the elected officials of the district or the province, then their operational independence can lead to a lack of accountability. Under the new Police Ordinance, the provincial government does not have any significant say on who is to be appointed the inspector-general of police of a province. However, under the Constitution of Pakistan, law and order are provincial subjects, and the chief minister is the executive head of the provincial government. Under Section 33 of the Police Ordinance 2002, the head of district police shall be responsible to the District Nazim for police functions; but this shall not include “administration of the district police, investigation of criminal cases and police functions relating to prosecution,” which shall rest with the police. The Nazim may visit a police station to find out if any person is under unlawful detention, and, in appropriate cases, may also direct action in accordance with law. However, the order does not state what will happen if the district police officer disobeys the orders of the Nazim, other than that the detainee can refer it to some authority without her or himself having any enforcement power. “The Nazim should be made the co-signer of the annual confidential report of the district police officers, as this would enhance the elected officials’ control over the police.” As mentioned above, the government has introduced a new district administrative structure through its Devolution Plan. Key changes include transferring oversight of the district superintendent of police from provincially appointed district commissioners to elected district mayors. The Plan allows the district police officer to order the use of live fire on their own authority and establishes public safety commissions, which have partial oversight over the district police. The public safety commissions under this Ordinance exist at the district, provincial and federal level. The commissions are to consist of appointed members recommended by various bodies, such as the district council and the provincial government. While the commissions has rightly transferred power to elected officials, they have also strengthened the powers of the police. The Nazims and the public safety commissions have oversight powers over the police, but they do not have any enforcement power. In an environment where the police are prone to misuse their powers, it is necessary to have mechanisms to control potential abuse. In addition, the members of the public safety commissions are restricted to a single term of three years, thereby ensuring complete turnover where no use can be made of the experience acquired by members of the last commission. The district public safety commission’s task is to oversee complaints against the police and evaluate police performance. However, there is no concrete action that the commission can take against a recalcitrant or errant police official, except referring the matter to the provincial government or police complaint authority. Effectively, the police have no authority controlling them, except their own hierarchy. In Pakistan it is reported that police officers often protect their subordinates, irrespective of their fault. In such situations, where the police are beyond the control of both the Nazims and the provincial government, they are likely to abuse their powers. In Pakistan, politicians have tended to interfere in purely administrative and police affairs, and it is therefore understandable that the government aims to make police immune from such interference. However, the police must be held accountable for the use of their powers, and in the attempt to provide them with operational independence, they must be ruled unaccountable. There has to be a system of effective checks and balances. In any modern, democratic society, it is important that the people enjoy basic human dignity and the knowledge that they are protected by properly-enforced laws. It is therefore imperative that Pakistani police are brought within the realm of Pakistani law and internationally acceptable standards for police conduct. In this regard there are certain steps that must be taken to ensure that the national police use their powers for the purpose for which the constitution intended—that is, the maintenance of law and order within the ambit of the law. Mandatory action should be prescribed against recalcitrant police officers. For example, in case of reported torture in a police station, a report should be registered against the station house officer, and upon the occurrence of two such cases in a subdivision, a report should be filed against the assistant superintendent of police for criminal negligence of duty. Greater disciplinary and legal action should be taken against police officials who misuse their powers, so that the corrupt are weeded out of the service and the public have better confidence in the force. In addition, the general perception that police officers protect their subordinates to a fault needs to be addressed. Civil society in Pakistan is small but vibrant and has already withstood an attempt to be curtailed. Under the Nawaz Sharif regime, an effort was made to ban a large number of NGOs. Civil society acts as a watch-dog on governmental action on behalf of the people and should therefore be encouraged to play a role in monitoring police excesses and accountability. In this way, civil society can act as a bulwark against police excesses. There is also a need to better train the police. In this regard, refresher courses should be held for in-service officers, as they need to be kept up to date with modern methods of crime detection as well as sensitization on important issues such as human rights, women’s rights, children’s rights, the rights of minorities, etc. To hold the police accountable for their actions, a better mechanism for accountability is required. This could be realized through the establishment of a special police ombudsman at the district level, who could deal exclusively with cases of police excesses. Until such a plan is fully implemented, one ombudsman may look after two or three districts. In addition, the civilian authority, that is, the provincial government and the Nazim, should have greater control over the police, since control of police is an instrument of civil governance, not something beyond its authority. The proposed public safety commissions should have more effective control over the police. Their role should not be just to recommend action, but should be to effect change—that is, it should be mandatory for higher authorities to take action on the commission’s recommendation. The Nazim should be made the co-signer of the annual confidential report of the district police officers, as this would enhance the elected officials’ control over the police. The provincial police need to be administratively under the provincial chief minister, as she or he is the head of the provincial government, and law and order is a provincial subject. The Executive of the province cannot be truly effective without the police under its control. With regard to the use of torture during investigations, it is recommended that the interrogation rooms in the police precincts be equipped with cameras, so that the interrogatory process is taped. This would go a long way toward controlling torture as an instrument of interrogation. In addition, as in the case of Britain, this would also be good for the police, as a confession made in front of the camera would be difficult to retract. Police in the West rarely wear uniforms unless on duty, and detectives also do not wear uniforms. Given that the police uniform instills fear in the Pakistan citizenry, the police should be made to wear plainclothes when not on the beat. The police should also have a code, as in the English legal system, which defines the procedure to be followed by an officer while performing various duties such as arrest, detention, and interrogation. Any violation of such a code should result in an automatic initiation of disciplinary action against the infringer. The Nazim and the concerned Public Safety Commission should be kept informed of any such proceedings. In cases where torture is proved, action should not only be taken against the perpetrators, but also against the officers in charge of that precinct for criminal negligence. In addition, there is a need to establish as many forensic laboratories as possible in the country, so that the latest scientific tools are available for investigation of crimes. Regarding the general perception that the police protect their fellow officers, in cases of failure of the police to take action against an officer for misuse of power, the matter should automatically be referred to an outside administrative authority. In addition, some inquiries against police officers should be given to non-police personnel. In this regard, the district coordination officer, the head of the district bureaucracy, or the provincial government should be able to nominate a member to the inquiry committee. 2.8 Police torture: A product of Pakistan's authoritarian political values About a decade ago, in March 2010, newspapers thronged with articles on police torture following an incident in Chiniot in which suspects accused of street crimes were stripped, tortured and publicly humiliated by policemen outside a police station. The videos of the incident led to public outcry. A suo motu notice was taken. The Supreme Court ordered the Punjab government to "shut down private torture cells being run by the police, make drastic changes in police training manuals, maintain strict discipline and hold senior police officers, including inspector general, accountable." The media reported that some 150 torture cells were being run in Lahore by the Punjab Police, outside the premises of police stations, where policemen were usually employing five methods of torture: physical, hygienic, deprivation, psychological and humiliation. The police felt targeted, embarrassed and demoralised. The then Inspector General of Punjab Police said the public was "abusing [the police] more than the Indian army." The Supreme Court instructed the Inspector, "tell your police force not to obey illegal or unconstitutional orders." Senior police officers told other police officers to follow "scientific methods" of interrogation. The low-ranked policemen involved, including the Station House Officer, were arrested. The Deputy Superintendent of Police was suspended. A year later, in August 2011, two young brothers were lynched to death in the presence of police officers in Sialkot. A few months later, reports of a torture cell within Crime Investigation Agency headquarters in Lahore (the Kotwali Office) made the rounds. In 2018, a young boy was sexually assaulted inside a private torture cell near Lahore, while one police official video recorded the assault. In the first week of September of this year alone, we have learned about the tragic deaths of Salahuddin Ahmed, Amjad Ali and Amir Masih. Last year, Advocate Javeria Younes presented her research on custodial torture in Pakistan. She surveyed lawyers, social activists, members of law enforcement agencies and torture victims in five major cities across Pakistan. She found that in addition to torture being used as an instrument to extract evidence, it is also "encouraged and abetted by the state to maintain its writ", explaining why police officers and the public alike complain that there is a lack of political will to reform police departments and improve the culture of civilian policing. Based on the records of Madadgaar Helpline, Younes found that between 2009 and 2013, there had been a dramatic increase in the incidents of torture of both men and women. In 2008, Madadgaar Helpline had published its own findings based on reported incidents of police torture across Pakistan between January and June. It found that in those six months, 743 cases of police torture had been reported, predominantly from Punjab (406) with Sindh being the second worse (304). A comparison of provincial capitals showed 177 cases of police torture reported in Lahore in this period, against 45 in Karachi. In the cases studied, ‘torture’ included a variety of techniques ranging from murder to rape, illegal detention, physical torture and harassment. Today, a handful of legal frameworks safeguard civilians from torture in police custody. The Pakistan Penal Code prohibits causing ‘hurt’ for extracting confessions (but does not use the word ‘torture’). Article 14(2) of the Constitution prohibits torture in custody and states, "No person shall be subjected to torture for the purpose of extracting evidence." Article 10 of the Constitution prohibits arbitrary arrest and detention. Section 176 of the Criminal Procedure Code demands a magisterial inquiry in cases of custodial deaths, but as is common knowledge, such inquiries seldom take place. Despite these provisions, as Sarah Belal, executive director of the Justice Project Pakistan, has stressed, torture needs to be criminalised and outlawed. A bill criminalising torture was tabled in the National Assembly in 2014 but has yet to be passed into law. (The proposed Torture, Custodial Death and Custodial Rape (Prevention and Punishment) Act 2015 was cleared by the Senate in 2015). 2.9 Symbols of law and terror When focusing on police torture, it is customary now to start by acknowledging its colonial roots. In 1855, the Madras Torture Commission produced a 400-page document that showed how revenue authorities had been misusing their powers of policing and brutally extracting revenue from the poor. But even after the Torture Commission had carried out inquiry and subsequent reform committees highlighted this issue, police abuse remained rampant. In her study on torture under colonial rule in India, Anupama Rao analysed how allegations of torture against the colonial regime and police were side stepped when responsibility was transferred to pre-colonial regimes and torture was seen as a legacy of "'native' practices of punishment." There is similarly a tendency in Pakistan to distance police administrators and their political masters from allegations of police misconduct, by transferring blame onto colonial laws and continuities and not the current politics of policing that thrive on the institutional weaknesses of our police organisations. Given that we have been independent for over seven decades, we must ask: are colonial policies, practices and laws perhaps suiting our political actors, its civil and military establishments, and serving their interests? What else explains such blatant lack of will towards institutional reform, inconsistencies in the application of existing laws and utter disregard for procedural justice? The prevalence of police use of excessive and lethal force continues to raise these and many other questions. In the 1990s, then interior minister, General (retired) Naseerullah Babar, propagated and popularised the idea of "fighting terror with terror." This statement reflected not only Babar’s military background, but it also foregrounded the idea of police terror that was present both before and after Pakistan’s independence, and capitalised on it. In 1973, an opinion in an English-language daily had criticised the "custodians of law and order, namely, the police… [for] contributing their share in spreading terror among the people." In 1984, I. A. Rehman wrote, "Our police know only one method of investigation. Investigation more often than not means extraction of confession under physical pressure. True, the law does not accept confessions obtained under duress. Still the practice continues because the police officers know that once a confession, however secured, is substantiated with evidence uncovered by the accused, the latter will be much too concerned with the risk of conviction to complain of violence inflicted on him." Thirty five years and a generation of police officers later, informal and extralegal procedures and practices remain unchanged, and the philosophy of fighting terror with terror has become institutionalised. In the 90s’ operations in Karachi, both the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and the Sindh Police were known for utilising lethal techniques for gutting out information from individuals in their confinement. It was through the reports of the Crime Investigation Agency’s torture cells, established for political victimisation, that the practice of cheera entered into public conscience as a method used by select police officials to cause excruciating pain to the detained suspect by pulling his legs apart and stretching them in opposite directions, suddenly or gradually. On its part, the MQM had similarly established its torture centres to mirror the practices of the police and inflict excessive violence on those accused of spying on behalf of the police and intelligence agencies, escalating a vicious cycle of torture and terror that was symbolised in the bori band laash. This human rights crisis in Karachi, a product of torture, deaths in custody, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings of political opponents designated as ‘terrorists’ has continued in the ongoing Karachi Operation since 2013, legitimised through narratives of counterterrorism and partly legalised through frameworks such as the Protection of Pakistan Act, 2014 and the amendments to the 1997 Anti-Terrorism Act. Over the years, news reports and investigations by journalists have provided in-depth insights into torture and killings in police custody and illegal detentions. In 2010, in the aftermath of the incident in Chiniot, one journalist quoted a deputy superintendent of the Punjab Police as claiming, "Punishments in public create fear of the police among the public, and believe me 80 per cent of the crime is controlled in this way… The low-ranked police officials who are 'famous' for using third degree means are very popular among the high officials and many of them are deputed as investigation officers to control crimes and criminals." Also popular are police officials who can be patronised by politicians for carrying out politically motivated violence. Accounts of torture detail not just the perpetration of violence on the part of police officials, but have also exposed the nexus between crime, politics and policing. In recent history, this has been evidenced in Karachi in the case of the Lyari gang war, where gang leaders, themselves patronised by political parties, were able to select which police officials would be posted at the police stations within Lyari. This selection could then determine which police officials would be complicit in the torture and even murder of rival gang members. The killing of Arshad Pappu is a case in point. In 2013, acting on the behest of Uzair Baloch and the People’s Amn Committee, three police inspectors abducted Baloch’s rival Pappu and delivered him to the former. Pappu’s brutal murder and beheading was video recorded and widely circulated. Although the inspectors were arrested, the buck stopped there when it should have passed on to the scapegoaters complicit in police use of lethal force. In 2015, a serving senior officer of the Sindh Police publicly distinguished between the half fry and full fry, a formula used to symbolise methods of police use of excessive and lethal force. Half fry referred to the torture of suspects in police custody, while full fry referred to their extrajudicial killings. In a statement, the officer said, "Extrajudicial killings and other actions cannot be justified officially but society has come to accept this 'modus operandi' of police to eradicate crimes and make streets safer... You can see police have restored peace and order in the city through this modus operandi." This statement echoes the multitude of claims made during this operation in Karachi as well as those of the 90s. What it also reflects is the belief held by certain police officers (and perhaps many members of our society) that such modus operandi is essential, legitimate and justified, if not legally then morally. Such attitudes towards vigilantism on the part of the police have been witnessed most staunchly in the pedestalisation of police personalities such as Chaudhry Aslam and Rao Anwar and the reliance on police encounter killings by both civilian and military regimes in Pakistan. 2.10 Selective review of the literature Pakistan-centric research on policing has a long way to go. Nevertheless, a handful of studies provide important insights on police violence. In 2008, for example, Chaudhry et al. examined over 1,800 victims of alleged police torture who were patients at the office of the Surgeon Medico legal in Lahore. In their study, they found that majority of the victims of police torture were men (91.5 per cent) and those who belonged to lower socio-economic groups, such as the labour class from rural areas, were victimised most frequently. In their description of the methods used against these victims, they write that torture techniques included physical trauma caused by blunt objects, rolling heavy objects over victims’ bodies, placing them over ice blocks, suspending them in air (by their limbs, or upside down). Physical torture was recorded through visible injuries ranging from skin abrasions to bone fractures. Body parts most targeted during torture techniques included buttocks, soles of feet, chest, thighs, palms and wrists. Victims were predominantly tortured by sticks and "broad, flat leather slipper(s) dipped in mustard oil to increase the impact of pain." In 2012, Mirza et al. carried out a cross-sectional, autopsy-based study over a period of six years (2005-2010) on custodial deaths in Karachi, examining 61 cases of which 21pc were homicidal deaths occurring from physical trauma resulting from torture. The study does not, however, indicate whether such torture was inflicted by police and prison officials or fellow prisoners. In 2017, scholars at the Heavy Industries Taxila, Wah and Rawalpindi Medical Colleges published a study based on 318 autopsies performed at a hospital in Rawalpindi in 2015. They found that, of these, at least eight people (seven males, one female) died due to police torture in Rawalpindi, most likely during interrogation. In 2012, Asad Jamal wrote on extrajudicial executions for the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. In his discussion on custodial deaths, Jamal found that between 1992 and 2009, the number of deaths in police custody had declined, demonstrating that trends can shift over time. Jamal recognises though that such statistics do not include the many incidents of police abuse that do not get reported. Additionally, the report stresses that this decline was likely due to growing media coverage of such incidents following which the identities of both victims and perpetrators are revealed, and not necessarily due to cultural changes within the police or any significant policy changes more generally. As research by a police officer Kamran Adil shows, police violence continues to be legitimised when it is said to be ‘necessary’ for extracting evidence, controlling crime (through encounter killings, for example) or in compliance with court orders. Such legitimation hardly makes all forms of police violence legal and is likely to allow the repetition of such practices (torture and extrajudicial killings), even if the presence of watchdogs periodically deters the police and their patrons. In 2014, Justice Project Pakistan and Yale Law School’s Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic published a detailed report on police torture in Faisalabad. The report was based on allegations of police abuse and misconduct in Faisalabad between 2006 and 2018, and relied on 1,867 medio-legal certificates for physician evaluations, interviews with victims of police abuse and a review of existing laws. The researchers found that in 1,424 of the 1,867 cases of alleged police abuse (76pc), physicians had confirmed signs of physical abuse. In 2016, Najm-ul-Sahr-Ata-Ullah and Saroop Ijaz wrote an extensive report for the Human Rights Watch that documented custodial torture, extrajudicial killings and other forms of police abuse in Pakistan. In the introductory section, they quote a police officer: "My staff and I are expected to be on duty 24 hours a day. We are perpetually exhausted…. How can you expect people to work under such conditions and not crack?" The report is one of the few that adequately acknowledges the limitations and pressures of the police, exposing the institutional fault lines and their exploitation by powerful social elites (politicians, landowners, civil and military bureaucracy). It is this exploitation by powerful elites that, I believe, should be thoroughly investigated in future research. 2.11 Call for institutional introspection Recently, a senior police officer explained to me that the police has used torture primarily for the following purposes: (1) to extract confessions, (2) to effect recoveries of stolen items (such as the recent torture of a Vehari woman by the police), (3) to make extra money and (4) to appease a ‘master’ or a political patron (such as the torture of the MQM party workers). In other discussions, police officers have pointed out that the use of torture and extrajudicial practices by select police officials give the rest of the institution a ‘bad name’. Countless recommendations have been provided by journalists, analysts and police officers on how to positively change police organisations in Pakistan. These range from investments in police recruitment, training and education, to independent oversight mechanisms that ensure accountability (internal and external) and transparency, to higher salaries for police officials and better resources for police stations and units and the digitisation of policing (including installing cameras inside police lock-ups). All of these are strong recommendations and I don’t doubt that police reform and freedom from police torture go hand in hand, as police officers themselves have recognised. Based on some of the readings above and my own research on policing, I want to offer a few reasons as to why police officers themselves should rethink encouraging police abuse or ignoring its prevalence. 2.11.1 Police abuse corrupts institutional memory: The continued reliance upon torture and similar methods teaches low-ranked police officials that acting outside and above the law, through informal procedures and practices, is routine and justified. It tells them that confessions extracted through torture and the elimination of criminals will amount to positive professional achievements and good performance that will guarantee them job security and accelerated promotions, not to mention the fattening up that comes with financial benefits often accrued by policemen appeasing their political patrons. New recruits are groomed by this thinking when they enter the organisation and it passes down to others, generation after generation, which explains why every few years we see an outcry over police abuse, ranging from torture to extrajudicial killings. As Faisal Ali Raja, a senior police manager, has adequately stated, "the behavioral change under a controlled environment at training colleges and schools is quite easy, but the real challenge begins when a fresh recruit starts working in the field." The education the officer receives on the job has a fundamental role to play in how fairly or unfairly he or she will behave with civilians. 2.11.2 Politicisation of policing As Zaigham Khan recently wrote, "without the police, elections can’t be won, properties can’t be seized and retained, and adversaries can’t be tamed." Knowing that select police officials and officers can be employed for extralegal purposes, other state institutions rely on the police for carrying out their dirty work. This means that the civilian police remains vulnerable to external political influences and demands and can be utilised as a tool for political killings and for suppressing dissent, opposition and other challenges to the status quo. 2.11.3 Roots of custodial deaths The police routinely claims that it is under pressure to deliver. This delivery of police performance in the form of forced confessions and extrajudicial killings raises important questions on the politics behind policing. Who is authorising such practices? Where are these pressures coming from? Police officers know the sources better than anyone else. Those who resist politicisation are vulnerable to transfers and suspensions. Those who don’t, expose the rest of the rank-and-file to these external pressures, becoming – actively or passively – enablers of police politicisation and subsequent abuse of power. Given that all policing is political, this is perhaps the most challenging aspect of this profession. 2.11.4 Police legitimacy: Public trust in police organisations in Pakistan has generally been low. Allegations of torture and killings further undermine the reputation of police officers and result in civilians harbouring a negative image of the police, even if they have never actually interacted with police officers, because of a perception of the thaana culture. This means that civilians will be less likely to respect the authority of police officials or believe that the police is the institution most adequate for maintaining order and public safety, encouraging them to look elsewhere (to private or paramilitary agents, for example). A lack of public legitimacy keeps the police demoralised, and police officers cynical. 2.11.5 Subculture of policing: Police culture generally has a poor reputation with embedded aspects such as cynicism, machoism, suspicion, discrimination, conservatism and authoritarianism routinely highlighted. This is of course grossly reductive, and it misses the important and complicated nuances within organisational cultures, as well as their many positive attributes. No doubt, not all police officers are mindlessly authoritarian. But practices and procedures can nevertheless be authoritarian in nature, and they may very well be a product of authoritarian political values in a country that projects itself as a democracy, which creates space for an authoritarian subculture within police departments. Authoritarian subcultures within organisations resist transparency, accountability and change; focus is on exerting control and power; prioritise maintaining the writ of the state by force; and counter the efforts of well-meaning officers who spend their careers dealing with the crises of police-community relations. Chapter 3 Abuse of Police Power and Investigation in India A dangerous anachronism, the police have largely failed to evolve from the ruler-supportive, repressive forces they were designed to be under Britain’s colonial rule. While sixty years later much of India is in the process of rapid modernization, the police continue to use their old methods. Instead of policing through public consent and participation, the police use abuse and threats as a primary crime investigation and law enforcement tactic. The institutional culture of police practically discourages officers from acting otherwise, failing to give them the resources, training, ethical environment, and encouragement to develop professional police tactics. Many officers even told Human Rights Watch that they were ordered or expected to commit abuses. 3.1 The Indian Police: A Dangerous State of Disrepair Although the police are tasked with battling India’s most pressing problems—including armed militancy, terrorism, and organized crime—a lack of political commitment and investment by the state has left the police overstretched and ill-equipped. There is just one civil police officer for every 1,037 Indian residents, far below Asia’s regional average of one police officer for 558 people and the global average of 333 people. Police infrastructure is crumbling. Decaying, colonial-era police stations and posts across India are stocked with antiquated equipment and lack sufficient police vehicles, phones, computers, and even stationery. A severe police staffing shortage is compounded by additional demands on an already stretched force. Police are routinely diverted to protect “VIPs”—usually politicians, businesspeople, and entertainment figures. Senior police officials frequently use low-ranking staff as orderlies and even as personal family servants. The police structure in India is based on a colonial law that did not provide the lower ranks, usually local recruits, with operational authority or advanced professional training. Inexplicably, that system continues six decades after the end of British rule in India. Constables, the bottom rank, make up as much as 85 percent of the Indian police, but for the most part they are not trained to investigate crime complaints. Junior and low-ranking police are frequently demoralized due to degrading working and living conditions. Police are under constant stress due to the statutory requirement that they be available for duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week—a grueling reality for the police we interviewed, many of whom said they were hardly ever permitted a day off and some of whom, living in barracks, literally had not been given time to see their families for weeks. Police say they are exhausted and have no time for exercise or recreation. The Director-General of Police in Uttar Pradesh boasted to Human Rights Watch, Junior-ranking police officers have little chance of promotion and are subject to the unrealistic demands of senior officers who are for the most part directly recruited into management positions, and often have no firsthand knowledge of the difficulties the lower ranks face. 3.2 Political Interference and Stalled Efforts at Reform Decades of partisan policing—politically motivated refusal to register complaints, arbitrary detention, and torture and killings sometimes perpetrated by police at the behest of national and state politicians—have resulted in an unprecedented level of public distrust and fear of the police. In a culture of shifarish, or favors, only Indians with powerful connections can be confident they will obtain police assistance. State and local politicians routinely tell police officers to drop investigations against people with political connections, including known criminals, and to harass or file false charges against political opponents. As one police officer told Human Rights Watch: The problem is that law enforcement is only possible up to a limit. Anti-social elements are protected by the powerful. Police is supposed to be tough on criminals. But criminals are protected, supported and rewarded, so the police who act against them are helpless. No officer is in a position to protect anyone else. They are barely able to protect themselves. Police at all ranks say that they fear reprimand or punishment if, in the course of doing their jobs, they act against individuals with political connections. In 2006, the Supreme Court handed down a landmark decision, Prakash Singh and Others v. Union of India and Others, that directed the central and state governments to enact new police laws to reduce political interference. Unfortunately, the central government and most state governments have either significantly or completely failed to implement the Court’s order. This suggests that key government officials have yet to accept the rule of law or the urgency of undertaking comprehensive police reform, including the need to make police accountable for widespread human rights violations. The Indian government also has yet to recognize the immediate need to improve the working and living conditions of low-ranking police which. While those conditions in no way justify the human rights violations committed by police, addressing them is critical to changing a working environment that facilitates, condones, and encourages such violations. 3.3 Human Rights Violations by Police In this report, Human Rights Watch documented four abuses frequently committed by police in parts of India: failure to investigate crimes, arbitrary arrest and illegal detention, custodial torture, and extrajudicial killings. 3.3.1 Failure to Register Complaints and Investigate Crime Police in India frequently fail to register crime complaints, called First Information Reports (FIRs), and to investigate crimes. Police officers told Human Rights Watch that they are often under pressure from political leaders to show a reduction in crime by registering fewer FIRs. Some said that they face suspension or reprimand if they register too many. Police also blame their failure to investigate cases on insufficient personnel and a reluctance to take on new cases that add to an already heavy workload. Traditionally vulnerable communities bear the brunt of this neglect. For instance, according to local NGOs, police often do not register complaints or investigate crimes against Dalits (so-called “untouchables”) under special laws enacted to ensure Dalit protection. Police, including specially designated Crimes Against Women cells, fail to sufficiently aid victims of domestic violence. According to NGOs and police themselves, police often urge victims to “compromise” with their spouses or spouses’ families, even when women allege repeated and severe physical abuse. Women’s rights activists say that police often do not investigate rape cases and re-traumatize victims who approach them for help through their hostile or inadequate response. For example, when 16-year-old Sunita (a pseudonym) became pregnant after she was raped by her cousin, her family members in a village near Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh beat her and threatened to kill her. Police refused to register an FIR for the rape, and advised her to get an abortion and marry someone from another village. Crime victims who are poor are often unable to obtain police assistance. They cannot afford to pay bribes that police ordinarily demand for FIR registration, or for the costs of investigation that victims are expected to cover on behalf of the police. They are less likely to be able to call local political figures to intervene with police on their behalf, while their perpetrators may have police protection due to political connections. 3.3.2 Illegal Arrest and Detention, Police Torture and Ill-Treatment Police officers sometimes make arrests in retaliation for complaints of police abuse, in return for bribes, or due to political considerations or the influence of powerful local figures. They also admit that they use unlawful coercion, including torture, to elicit confessions to the charges they fabricate. Police often fail to follow procedures mandated by the Supreme Court in DK Basu v. West Bengal, including production of a suspect before a magistrate within 24 hours of arrest. A Bangalore police officer admitted: We do use some extralegal methods. You might disagree, but we cannot do all work by the book. Then the police would be completely ineffective. This failure to “work by the book” is reflected in frequent torture and other ill-treatment of suspects in police custody. Human Rights Watch found that severe ill-treatment sometimes intensifies over the period of an individual’s detention. For instance, in December 2007 police tortured 18-year-old Ram Chandra Prasad, a murder suspect, for five nights in Varanasi to elicit a confession. Prasad told Human Rights Watch: After they finished tea they pulled off my shirt and trousers. The constable kicked me, and then constables came and held my hands and legs. They drenched me with a bucket of cold water...For one and a half hours, I was beaten like this.... [On the third night] the SI [sub-inspector] and SO [station officer] pressed their feet against my thighs. I felt my veins, it felt like they would burst. They said, “We’ll make you impotent and you’ll be of no use.” Individuals who are poor and socially or politically marginalized are especially vulnerable to prolonged detention and repeated ill-treatment because they are unable to bribe police to secure their release and are unlikely to have connections to local political figures who can intervene. Twenty-year-old Pradeep Singh died after suffering a severe beating by police in Chitti, Dhankaur, Uttar Pradesh, in January 2007. According to Singh’s family, police arrested Pradeep with two other men. Police released the other two after they paid a police bribe. But Singh’s family, Dalits with little money, were unable to pay the police. Singh’s grandfather Kedara, age 83, visited him in lockup before he died: When I looked at him, I felt very sad. He couldn’t stand up straight. Why? We are poor people. We don’t have money to give to them. And if it’s our caste, then they beat up all the more.... We don’t have money ourselves, where do we give money to police from? If we gave the police [money], probably it would have helped my boy. Human Rights Watch’s investigations found that the police sometimes fail to provide arrested children with the special protections afforded under India’s Juvenile Justice Act, such as the requirement to present any detained child before a special Juvenile Justice Board within 24 hours of arrest. Several boys in Bangalore described how police subjected them to electric shocks and prolonged beatings. Socially and politically marginalized communities are subject to frequent sexual and physical harassment and street beatings by police. Members of the hijra community in Bangalore said that physical harassment and abuse by police had become increasingly routine since 2007. Bangalore sex workers described police beatings and sexual harassment. One woman told Human Rights Watch, I was standing on the street. It was quite deserted. A policeman came and slapped me and beat me up very badly. I was lying on the ground. When I begged for water, he unzipped his pants and offered his penis. Some police officers admit that “using force” to elicit confessions from criminal suspects is their primary investigation tool, rather than gathering forensic evidence and witness accounts. False confessions lead police to gather faulty evidence, which frequently results in case being thrown of out of court or wrongful convictions. 3.3.3 Impunity for Extrajudicial Killings Officer Singh, discussed above, described to Human Rights Watch how senior officers boast of ordering killings. The SP [superintendent of police] will say, “Under my regime, so many criminals were “encountered.” I fear being put in jail, but if I don’t do it, I’ll lose my position. While the practice is not the norm in most of India, fake encounter killings occur frequently. Many take place in Singh’s Uttar Pradesh state, where the National Human Rights Commission reported 201 complaints of such killings in 2007, more than any other state. Police are usually the only eyewitnesses to these alleged encounters, which are typically carried out by junior and low-ranking police. Considering the long history and scale of this practice, it is likely that state officials and senior police are not only aware of these killings, but allow, unofficially sanction or even order these killings. Criminal suspects or their family members are frequently the targets of fake encounter killings. In the cases Human Rights Watch documented, the facts strongly suggested the implausibility of official accounts of the killings. For instance, Sugriv Singh Yadav, accused of several crimes, died on August 6, 2008, in Faizabad, Uttar Pradesh. According to police, Yadav was shot dead while fleeing on a motorbike after he and three others stole a mobile phone and 10,000 rupees (about US$210) from a man who then complained to the police. But according to an attorney for Yadav’s family: “The motorbike that the robbers were using had not a drop of petrol in it. There was no blood at the site of the incident where Sugriv was apparently shot.” 3.4 Obstacles to Police Accountability Police can usually commit extrajudicial killings with impunity. The Indian media and NGOs have documented hundreds of such killings but their efforts at accountability have been hampered by systematic police deniability. The absence of records, including in many cases a post-mortem examination or registry of arrest and detention, makes it very difficult to disprove the police’s account. In some cases, police deny any knowledge of or responsibility for killings, even when the subject was last seen alive in police custody. For instance, police deny any involvement in the June 18, 2006, death of Abdul Khalid in Uttar Pradesh state, even though his wife Sakia Begum witnessed his arrest that night. She believes he was later killed in custody and his body was abandoned in a field near her house. Immediately after the arrest, she ran to the police station but found it locked and empty. She told Human Rights Watch: We were looking all over for him.... Meanwhile, our neighbors called the police to say that there was a body lying in the field near our house. The police took my son there for identification. It was my husband. Independent investigations are critical to reducing impunity, but despite the presence of the national human rights commissions and their state counterparts, they are rare in much of India. Police investigations, either initiated by police or undertaken at the direction of external agencies, are often ineffective due to a “code of silence” that makes police unlikely to disclose incriminating evidence. In the absence of an independent investigation, officers who issue illegal orders or pressure subordinates to carry out abuses can lay the blame exclusively on their subordinates. Criminal prosecution has the potential to check police abuse, but victims often do not file cases because they fear police retaliation. Another major obstacle is section 197 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which provides immunity from prosecution to all public officials unless the government approves the prosecution. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has the authority to recommend an independent investigation either by another division of the local police or by the Central Bureau of Investigation, but this often results in the police effectively investigating itself. Even where this is done with integrity, the process does not have the appearance of independence and impartiality, leaving victims and families suspicious of the process. In most cases the NHRC only recommends that state governments provide victims with interim compensation. The award of compensation to victims without proper prosecutions of officers who commit the crimes and their superiors who order them is inadequate to halt recurring violations. The country’s 18 state human rights commissions (SHRCs) vary greatly in resources and willingness to act, and local lawyers and activists describe SHRC staff as inadequate in number, lacking human rights training, and biased against complaints, factors that lead them to routinely defer to police accounts of a given incident. Even in the exceptional case in which action is taken, the punishment most often consists of temporary suspension or transfer of the offending officer to another police station. Until officers know that they will be prosecuted, fired, or their careers seriously damaged for engaging in abusive behavior, the problem will not go away. 3.4.1 Overhaul police structures and improve working conditions Improve conditions for rank and file officers: low-ranking police are overworked and often exhausted due to the requirement they be available for duty 24 hours a day. Some live in filthy, cramped barracks. They are demoralized by limited promotional opportunities and relegation to menial tasks. In such conditions, they are likely to fall into abusive patterns of behavior. Minimum standards for housing and work hours should be developed, for instance, a requirement that station house officers announce and adhere to a monthly work schedule with maximum hours of work and provide for mandatory leave. Improve training and equipment: a scarcity of trained personnel can contribute to the likelihood of abusive behavior, such as the “short-cuts” of refusing to register crime complaints to reduce caseloads, and building cases on coerced confessions rather than collection of evidence. Increasing the number of junior-ranking officers trained and authorized to conduct investigations and register complaints, and training constables to assist in crime investigations, is critical. The lack of crime investigation training and equipment effectively discourages officers from building cases on forensic evidence and witness statements, rather than coerced confessions. The investigation curriculum at police academies must be bolstered, including in the use of forensic tools and non-coercive interrogation techniques. Every investigating officer should have access to basic forensic equipment. The training and roles of low-ranking police should be enhanced to include investigation assistance. Create a culture that rewards respect for human rights and professional conduct: the skills and potential of junior- and low-ranking police are often underdeveloped, with many staying at the same rank their entire careers. Frustrated officers with nothing to lose are more likely to engage in abusive behavior. To change this environment, provide incentives for better police behavior. Fill more senior- and junior-ranking positions by promotion, rather than direct recruitment. Senior police should actively encourage junior-ranking officers to innovate police station procedures and publicly laud such work. 3.4.2 Enforce the law and hold abusers accountable for violations Create a system of effective independent investigations into complaints of police abuse and misconduct: independent and effective investigations into complaints against police are rare in much of India. To reduce impunity, the central and state government should bolster the capacity of the national and state human rights commissions to undertake independent investigations, including the number of investigative staff. The central and state governments should also comply with the Supreme Court’s order in Prakash Singh mandating the establishment of Police Complaints Authorities, and provide such bodies sufficient resources and independence to carry out their duties in a way that creates public confidence. Enact laws against torture: strong domestic laws are critical to signaling police that torture is never a permissible means to extract confessions or other information from criminal suspects. The Indian parliament should ratify the Convention Against Torture and amend the Indian Evidence Act to make inadmissible any evidence obtained on the basis of a police interrogation that involved the use of torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or other illegal coercion. Repeal laws that encourage impunity: section 197 of the Criminal Procedure Code continues to effectively shield many abusive police officials from prosecution for actions taken on “official duty,” permitting abuse to frequently go unpunished and undeterred. The Indian parliament should repeal Section 197, or retain it but define “official duty” to exclude unconstitutional conduct such as arbitrary detention, custodial torture and ill-treatment, and extrajudicial killings. Require the reading of rights to suspects and put safeguards into place to deter torture: existing laws regarding arrest and detention are frequently flouted, regarded by some police as impractical. To encourage institutional acceptance of these safeguards and reduce abuse, require police to formally recite the suspect’s rights upon arrest or any informal detention. 3.5 The Deteriorating State of the Indian Police The Indian police face an unprecedented level of public distrust. The media derides them as professionally incompetent and criminally negligent. Much of the public fears them as the strong arm of corrupt politicians. These characterizations are unduly monolithic considering the diversity of India’s 1.43 million police. The Indian Constitution authorizes each of the 28 states to operate its own police service, which includes an armed reserve and civil police. The central government operates civil police services in each of the seven union territories and in the capital, Delhi, in addition to various armed police forces that state governments may request for extraordinary law and order problems. Lacking concurrent jurisdiction, these state and central police services operate independently of one another. While police administration is decentralized, the central government wields significant influence over state police services. Each state police service draws senior police from the Indian Police Service (IPS), an elite police cadre recruited and trained by the central government. While law and order is primarily a state concern, the principal laws covering police work were enacted by the central government and are national in scope: the Indian Penal Code defines major criminal offenses and the Criminal Procedure Code and Evidence Act regulate police behavior and codify constitutional protections for criminal suspects. Central government laws such as the Prevention of Atrocities Against Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes Act and Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act give police additional duties and define special criminal offenses. 3.6 Colonial Legacies and the Failure to Modernize The Indian police have long had a strained relationship with the public. India’s state and central police services were organized based on the Police Act of 1861, a law drafted in the wake of the 1857 uprising against British rule that remains in force in the union territories and is the basis for most state police laws. Designed to secure British imperial interests, the Indian police were controlled by civilian administrators accountable to the British government, rather than the local population. Despite this aspect of civilian control, the Indian police in the colonial era were paramilitary in operation. Geared toward quelling anti-British “disturbances” and general lawlessness rather than preventing and investigating particular crimes, the police developed large armed constabulary forces. A military ethos and distrust of the “native” population meant that the constabulary, the lowest rank comprising at least 80 percent of the police and staffed with Indians, was entrusted with only menial tasks and charged with instilling fear in the public, rather than seeking its cooperation. Scholar Arvind Verma writes: Shaped as an instrument of the Raj, it was these police who would baton charge Gandhi’s peaceful followers or shoot to death young people raising Indian flags. To prevent police from sympathizing with the local population’s problems and the independence movement, the police were structurally sequestered. Senior police, drawn from the elite cadre that would later become the Indian Police Service but initially limited to non-Indians, were deployed to areas with which they had no community ties or experience. Low-ranking police such as constables were physically secluded from the local population, residing in police barracks and working from the police station rather than venturing into villages to address crime complaints or render aid. India retained the Police Act of 1861 after it gained independence from British rule in 1947, along with many of the structural characteristics described. In the decades that followed, the Indian police remained a force deployed to maintain law and order and support the state, and failed to develop the public service orientation of modern policing. The central and state governments developed large armed police battalions in response to growing levels of social violence, and failed in large part to devote resources to investigative units and crime prevention strategies. The post-independence Indian police have earned a reputation for brutality in the service of politicians and widespread corruption. In the 1970s, police harassed, beat, and killed resistors during Indira Gandhi’s programs of mass forced sterilization and “slum clearance.”[16] During the Emergency Period of 1975 to 1977, police harassed and extorted members of the general population under the guise of the Maintenance of Internal Security Act, and arbitrarily detained political opponents of Indira Gandhi and the Congress Party.[17] Communal violence in the following decades featured politically motivated failure to protect religious minorities and police collusion. This was particularly notable during the 1984 mob attacks on Sikhs in Delhi and attacks on Muslims in Mumbai in 1993 and in Gujarat in 2002.[18] This history of alienation from, and violence against, the Indian public has rendered the police a widely despised group, regarded by the public as corrupt, inept, and ineffective.[19] Yet the police are increasingly tasked with battling India’s myriad public safety problems: armed militancy, terrorism, entrenched gender-based, caste and communal violence, and escalating levels of organized crime, white collar crime, and cyber crime. 3.6.1 A Dangerous State of Disrepair The police are unequal to these tasks due to a dearth of trained personnel and necessary equipment. Poor living and working conditions not only demoralize police, they result in delays or failures of officers to assist crime victims and investigate crimes. 3.6.2 Poor Infrastructure The deteriorating state of the police is most visible at police stations. Human Rights Watch researchers visited numerous decaying police stations built before independence and stocked with antiquated equipment. Many lacked basic equipment needed for investigating crimes, preserving evidence, and keeping minimally adequate records. In rural areas, some police stations lacked electricity. In a station in Uttar Pradesh, police set up desks in the courtyard because power outages render their offices hot and dark. While rural India suffers from inadequate power supply, police stations could be provided with generators and power back-ups. At a station in Himachal Pradesh, police struggled for several minutes to unclasp and close a pair of rusted, decades-old handcuffs. Some police are equipped with First World War-era rifles and inadequate bullet-proof vests, a deadly combination highlighted by the death of sixteen police during the first seven hours of the November 2008 Mumbai shooting rampage by militants armed with Ak-47s. Many police are unprepared to face or use lethal force due to poor equipment and lack of weapons training. “A constable will fire at best ten rounds in the entire training period,” said Ajai Sahni of the Institute for Conflict Management, a New Delhi think tank that works on security issues. “When a fellow actually has to fire, he doesn’t aim properly.” Junior officers interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that they have no discretion to use funds for infrastructure improvements. Stations Human Rights Watch visited ordinarily had only one phone line and two handsets, and police said they routinely use their personal mobile phones to communicate with each other. “Police stations don’t get enough money to function as they’re expected to function,” said a member of Poverty Action Lab of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a development project, who has visited dozens of stations in Rajasthan. “Often the money literally doesn’t cover the stationery.” Police said that limited resources prevented them from responding promptly to calls for help and visiting crime scenes, setting up patrols, and following up on investigation leads. Nationwide, there is an average of about seven police vehicles for every 100 police. In urban areas, the scarcity of police vehicles means police use their own motorcycles. Many police officers we interviewed said the fuel allowance they received covered only a small fraction of the cost they incurred. Some police in rural areas said that they were often expected to take public transportation to reach remote areas, leading to delays in police response. Andersenpet police station in Kolar, Karnataka, a high-crime area with gangs feuding over local gold deposits, is equipped with only one jeep. The night Human Rights Watch visited the station, the station house officer, or SHO, was out with the jeep when a stream of people injured in a nearby street fight poured into the police station. One man arrived bleeding, having been beaten on his head with a stick. With no police vehicles available, a constable was deputed to flag down an auto-rickshaw (motorcycle taxi) and escort the injured man to the hospital. Soon after, four other wounded men staggered in one-by-one. The police made no attempt to discover where the fight was occurring or to try and stop it. Running out of personnel to escort the injured to the hospital, the head constable merely stopped reluctant auto drivers and put the injured into their cars. The head constable explained, “These types of fights are common here... We don’t need to attend to them.” He added that he had no alternative, “The jeep is with the SHO. There are only two motorbikes. We don’t have anything available right now.”[27] Senior police acknowledge that inadequate equipment and supplies breed rampant petty corruption, including demands for payment in exchange for assistance to crime victims. A police officer in charge of a Bangalore police station described a case in which parents told police their daughter had been kidnapped from the area: If the family were to wait for the police to respond, it would be days before the expense amount [was authorized] and the policeman able to reach the spot using public transport. So, if the father wants results, he will offer to provide transport.” 3.6.3 Another police officer told Human Rights Watch: The police station is allotted stationery, which is never enough. We even have to buy paper to write the FIRs. Every week, we are sending at least 8 or 10 statements to a number of officers so we have to make multiple copies. How do we fund this? With our salaries? But if we ask the victim to supply the paper, we are accused of corruption. The central government has made modernization grants to state police services since the 1960s. But many police told Human Rights Watch that they lacked computers, internet connections, and other technological equipment. A constable at the women’s police station in Lucknow noted that while a computer had been allocated to the station, the station house officer had taken it home. Moreover, state governments sometimes fail to spend the modernization grant money they receive, or fail to use the funds for long-term development. Due to poor planning, sometimes police receive new equipment, but not the funding to maintain it or train officers to use it. Many police officers complain that computers are of little use in the absence of searchable databases and specialized software. India lacks a functional nationwide fingerprint database, and most states and metropolitan areas have not developed criminal history databases accessible to investigating officers. Case diaries and police registers are usually recorded in notebooks or loose leaf paper which are then tied with string and stored in corners of the station or atop tall cabinets. Telecommunications, transport and data processing equipment—provision of which is inadequate at many Indian police stations—are all critical to effective police work. As noted, the lack of available vehicles prevents police from promptly following up on leads that swiftly turn cold. Information-sharing, through Internet technology and mobile phones, is crucial to coordinating the crime investigation and crime prevention efforts of state and city police forces, particularly when suspects flee the area to escape arrest. On a local level, information-sharing is critical because violent demonstrations and local disputes can quickly escalate. Former senior police officer and member of the National Human Rights Commission K.N. Gupta explains: Law and order in the present day is much like a conflagration that starts with a spark. The cause of trouble is often obscure but the spread is rapid and the effect is widespread. At the police station level, the station House Officer perceives local incidents but not their wider repercussions. At district or higher levels, senior officers perceive the repercussions but not the causes... Without a communication network linking all levels, there can obviously be no upward flow of information and intelligence or downward control and direction of action... [This] is the root-cause of failure of police operations. Moreover, the lack of basic crime investigation equipment, discussed in greater detail in Chapter III of this report, means evidence is likely to be contaminated or otherwise compromised, rendering it of little or no use in supporting prosecutions or becoming the basis for acquittals. While it is modern police practice to keep evidence in sealed containers with labels indicating chain of custody, at stations Human Rights Watch visited in Himachal Pradesh, police stored evidence in loosely tied cotton sheets. In Bangalore, Inspector S. Badrinath said that since his police station had only a single investigation kit, with one body bag, they did not use it. A barracks in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, doubles as an evidence storage room. Investigating officers complain that they lack interrogation rooms or offices in which to write reports. The inadequacy or absence of such basic equipment makes it all the more likely that police will seek coerced and false confessions and, in the worst cases, secure “justice” by extrajudicially killing criminal suspects. Older stations appear structured to physically intimidate the public, and even to deter approach. Some stations Human Rights Watch visited featured reporting desks rising above eye level, so that a visitor making a complaint of crime would be unable to view what a police official wrote down. In many rural police stations, witnesses or complainants, particularly the poor or Dalits, are expected to sit on the floor or stand while addressing policemen. The reporting room at the Lucknow women’s police station, where police ordinarily direct victims of rape and domestic violence, was cramped with more than half a dozen police, affording no privacy for the taking of a complaint. Chapter 4: Abuse of Police Power and Investigation in Bangladesh There is no doubt that some members of the Bangladesh Police are multi-talented. Apart from catching criminals, they have a keen expertise in magic. In the name of search, they demonstrate their skills by putting packets of yaba tablets in the pockets of their suspects. Moreover, for ‘demonstrating’ such public display, these magicians pick people of all classes, even if they are not willing to participate. Reports of the police allegedly planting yaba pills in the pockets of the innocent people are on the rise. Constables and even sub-inspectors have been reported to harass innocent pedestrians on false allegations of carrying yaba tablets and fearing social humiliation, they pay a heavy amount to dismiss the case for good. This method has become a common phenomenon in Bangladesh in recent times. It is definitely a form of police brutality and a sheer abuse of power. It raises concerns regarding the human rights situation in our country. An individual thus falls into the trap laid down by some mischievous persons in power. They do all the work of putting things here and there and as the job gets done, a final move is initiated by the authoritative officer. 4.1 Recounting similar incidents of the past Such practices have been rampant particularly in metropolitan areas. This is due to the recent rise in smuggled yaba tablets entering into the country. More than 10 cases of false allegations have been reported in 2016. Most recently, on 25th April 2018, a case was filed by the police against a young man for carrying yaba pills in Chittagong. In a dramatic turn of events, a counter case was filed by the accused’s mother against seven police officers, claiming that it was a set up. According to Meherunessa, her son Mehedi Hasan was picked up from the street by the police and the police demanded money worth BDT three lacs. “At his refusal, the police put 40 yaba tablets in his pocket and charged him for carrying them”, claimed by Meherunnessa. Such an instance however, is not new. Reports of similar occurrences from the leading dailies are mentioned below. On the 31st January 2016, a female student was sexually harassed and alleged to carry 200 yaba pills. This was after she was brought down from her rickshaw by the sub-inspector of Mohammadpur area and taken to a shop in the name of search. According to the woman, the policemen searched her bag for an hour and asked her to take off her jacket with indecent language. The SI was later suspended. In February of the same year, a Barisal police official was suspended for extortion and harassing two businessmen. The sub-inspector forcefully took the businessmen to a hotel in Natun Bazar bus terminal area and demanded Tk 50,000 from them, according to a complaint by the businessmen. Later, the SI put Yaba tablets inside one of their pockets and threatened to arrest them if they do not give him the sum of money, the businessmen alleged. In late October of 2016, a sub-inspector of Chowgacha Police Station kept yaba pills via a source at a store owned by Mr. Rabon Kumar. The pills were found by the SI after the source came out. After other traders in the market stood up for Rabon, the SI and his source fled the scene. On December 2016, two Chittagong Metropolitan Police constables were suspended for deliberately putting yaba pills in a journalist’s pocket. Mr. Mostafa was brought down from his bus and taken to the police box. He alleged that the constable tried to trap him when he found nothing after searching his pocket. This year (2018), three incidents of similar pattern took place in Jessore. On 11th June, an SI got into trouble as he tried to put a packet of opium into a young man’s pocket in Baily Road area. On 15th June, an SI of the Kotwali Police Station of Benapole was barred for trying to make a college teacher an accused in a drug peddling case. A source of the SI tried to arrest the teacher after inserting some yaba pills into his pocket, triggering chaos.[5] Two days after this incident, a police constable of Jessore faced mob beating for allegedly putting yaba in the pocket of a businessman named Pikul. In the way of conversation, the constable tried to put 3-4 pieces of yaba tablets wrapped in a polythene packet into Pikul’s pocket. Upon Pikul’s screaming, a mob gathered and beat the police constable as they found yaba tablets in his hands. Incidents like these are rampant in Dhaka city. On June 27, 2018, a journalist named Ashik was stopped by patrol police and put on a police van. He was beaten and told that he would be set free if he paid Tk. 100,000/-. After the journalist said that he could only pay Tk. 5,000, the police charged him with possession of yaba, according to a report of bdnews24.com. It can be observed that in almost all of these reported incidents, the stop and search took place away from the public, behind police vans or dark alleys. However. Rule 280 (a) of the Police Regulations of Bengal (PRB), 1943 requires that searches be made in such a way that the eyewitnesses to the whole search must be able to see clearly where each article is found. They should sign the search list afterwards, i.e. the B.P. Form No. 44. Clause (h) of Rule 280 states that ’Care should be taken that the witnesses are, so far as possible, unconnected with any of the parties concerned or with the police, so that they may be regarded as quite independent.’ However, the witnesses in real life are the other policemen who remain present at the scene. The PRB strongly recommends that the searches be made with regard to the law contained in Chapter VII and sections 102, 103, 163 and 166 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), 1898. Section 103 of the CrPC 1898 requires that the search be made in presence of a witness. The officer about to make the search shall call upon two or more respectable inhabitants of the locality. The search shall be made in their presence and a list of all things seized in the course of such search shall be prepared by the officer and shall be signed by the witnesses. Once a victim is picked up, it is his family that suffers the most. Usually, such policemen threaten to charge a liability under section 19 of the Narcotics Act, 1990, concerning the victim unless he/she gives him bribe. The policemen thus induces the victim’s family to pay the sum. Therefore, the families resort to paying huge amount of cashes to get their beloved ones released. It is to be noted that section 163 (1) of the CrPC states that no police officer shall offer or make any such inducement or threat as mentioned in section 24 of the Evidence Act, 1872. Section 24 of the said Act states that a confession of an accused person shall be irrelevant if it was made by inducement or threat. This also attracts the offence of extortion defined in section 383 of the Penal Code, 1860. This section states that whoever puts another person in fear and dishonestly induces to handover property or valuable security, commits extortion. Section 384 of the Penal Code states that whoever commits extortion shall be punished with an imprisonment of three years of either description or fine, or both. Since the seizure list contains the items recovered and the pouches of yaba are exhibited in the court, victims face immediate imprisonment. However, section 196 of the Penal Code, 1860 states, ‘Whoever corruptly uses or attempts to use as true or genuine evidence, any evidence which he knows to be false or fabricated, shall be punished in the same manner as if he gave or fabricated false evidence.’ As mentioned before, the B.P. Form No. 44 or the seizure list is mostly signed by the policemen. So, there is no way for the truth to be unearthed. This creates a possibility of falsifying the report to imprison the victim. In this regard, section 219 of the Penal Code, 1860 states, ‘Whoever, being a public servant, corruptly or maliciously makes or pronounces in any stage of a judicial proceeding, any report, order, verdict, or decision which he knows to be contrary to law, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years, or with fine, or with both’. Knowing one’s rights and acting upon it can save one’s reputation and time. If one is truly innocent and wants to establish that the allegation made was false, one can claim it under the Penal Code. Section 211 of the Penal Code, 1860 talks about false charge of offence made with intent to injure. This section states, ‘Whoever, with intent to cause injury to any person, institutes or causes to be instituted any criminal proceeding against that person, or falsely charges any person with having committed an offence, knowing that there is no just or lawful ground for such proceeding or charge against that person, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both.’ 4.2 Current Situation, Problems and Countermeasures Against the Abuse of Power Every offence of abuse of power presupposes that the offender is more powerful than the victim of the offence. When the offender is a public servant then the situation is more precarious for the victim. Generally, when we talk about abuse of power, the focus is mainly on the abuse of power by members of law enforcing agencies. Unrestrained behaviour by law enforcers is a common phenomenon almost everywhere in the world. It is too frequent in less developed countries where the socio-political scenario is more volatile than that of developed countries. There can be no denial of the fact that incidences of abuse of power by lawenforcers, at times, do take place in Bangladesh. However, in Bangladesh law enforcers are not above the law. Offences described in the Penal Code are equally applicable to law-enforcers. The Penal Code of 1860, in sections 211, 330, 331, 448, provides provisions for punishment for offences by members of the police and other law enforcers. As has been enumerated earlier, sections 344 to 348 of the Penal Code define and provide punishment for wrongful confinement and illegal restraint by law-enforcers also. Sections 348 of the Penal Code provides punishment for delinquent police personnel who wrongfully confine a person for the purpose of extorting a confession or information or of compelling restoration of property. The maximum punishment prescribed in section 348 of the Penal Code of 1860 is three years imprisonment and a fine. 4.3 Custodial death Custodial death is considered as culpable homicide amounting to murder, and the law does not take a discriminatory view in the case of a murderer who is a police officer. Bangladesh has a recent example of the execution of death sentences on three policemen who were convicted of rape and murder of a young girl. The case is popularly known as the Yasmin Murder Case. A few years back some police personnel, including a senior police officer were given life terms of imprisonment for their involvement in the murder of a young student who was in their custody. Section 211 of the Penal Code of 1860 provides punishment for a police officer who brings a false indictment against any person. Section 330 of the Penal Code of 1860 provides punishment for police officers who inflict injury of a simple nature upon any person in order to obtain a confessional statement. Section 331 of the Penal Code of 1860, provides punishment for a police officer who inflicts grievous injury upon any person to obtain a confessional statement. Section 448 of the Penal Code provides punishment for a police officer who detains a person illegally for the purpose of obtaining a confessional statement. Offences of abuse of power by police personnel are dealt with severely by bringing the delinquents to justice. The Battalion Police Ordinance, 1979 (Ordinance XXV of 1979), provides for the creation of Special Courts for the trial of some offences by police personnel. But they are also tried in criminal courts created under the Code of Criminal Procedure 1898. Instances of punishment meted out to police personnel are not rare, although accurate numbers of delinquents found guilty are not available because there is no central system for keeping records of such punishment. Thus, it is evident that sufficient legal deterrents exist in the law which can be taken to guard against the abuse of power. 4.4 Constitution of Bangladesh The Constitution of Bangladesh is considered one of the good constitutions in the world in that it contains almost all the provisions of the Universal Human Rights Declaration. Part III of the Constitution of Bangladesh sets forth the fundamental rights of the citizens which are enforceable by the courts of law. The fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution guarantee that there shall not be any law which is inconsistent with any one of the fundamental rights guaranteed in Part III of the Constitution of Bangladesh. Article 31 of the Constitution declares that no person shall be deprived of life or personal liberty save in accordance with law. Article 33 guarantees that no person arrested shall be detained in custody without being informed of the grounds for arrest and shall not be denied the right to consult a lawyer of his/her choice. It has also been ensured that every person arrested must be produced before a magistrate within 24 hours of arrest. A person arrested shall not remain in custody unless authorized by the Magistrate. Article 42 guarantees a citizen’s right to acquire and transfer property. Chapter 5 Conclusion Police force is regarded as one of the most important internal security forces given a mission to monitor law and order situation in the country and curb any sort of violent or criminal activities. The term "Police Abuse" it-self sounds awkward and contradictory, but it refers to a situation where allegedly this law enforcing agency is involved in violating rights of the public and is involved in some sort of misuse or over use of its powers, hence troubling the general public in one way or the other. This qualitative study is based on in-depth interviews with different stakeholders (including the Police force it-self) identified by the researchers and tries to integrate their responses and explore different forms of such alleged violence and importantly investigate potential circumstances where this over use of power is justified or is given protection. Different stakeholders have different opinion on the subject under stud Police force is regarded as one of the most important internal security forces given a mission to monitor law and order situation in the country and curb any sort of violent or criminal activities. The term "Police Abuse" it-self sounds awkward and contradictory, but it refers to a situation where allegedly this law enforcing agency is involved in violating rights of the public and is involved in some sort of misuse or over use of its powers, hence troubling the general public in one way or the other. This qualitative study is based on in-depth interviews with different stakeholders (including the Police force it-self) identified by the researchers and tries to integrate their responses and explore different forms of such alleged violence and importantly investigate potential circumstances where this over use of power is justified or is given protection. Different stakeholders have different opinion on the subject under study. BIBLIOGRAPHY Adil, Kamran. "How is Police Viole." Ahmad, Muneer. "History and Context of Public Administration in Pakistan." In Public Administration in South Asia, pp. 371-393. Routledge, 2017. Ahmed, Nazir. 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