Recently, the writer Mushtaq Zil was killed in Hajat. His crime was implying a major health official in a cartoon! Not a minister or a parliamentarian, just a cartoon, and he was imprisoned for a year without any direct mention in the cartoon, then eventually killed by the government!

The cartoonist Kishore was also arrested and tortured. We have heard about his ordeal in detention.

Earlier, photographer Shahidul Alam was taken into police custody in a white outfit. After nearly 100 days of imprisonment, he was granted bail. He was subjected to torture, soaked in his own blood, and paraded in court with a torn Punjabi for speaking about the widespread oppression of Chhatra League on the streets during a safe road protest on a foreign channel.

An academic researcher working on extremism at North South University is taken away by police in plainclothes. No trace of him is found for several months. After many months, he is found in a deteriorated condition in a place in Uttara. Where he was, why he was there, no one knows.

Adilur Rahman of Odhikar Foundation was arrested in 2013 for investigating the number of deaths in Hefazat’s event on May 5th. They claimed that three thousand people were killed that night. In the investigation of rights, they spoke of sixty deaths. Three thousand versus sixty. Who got arrested? Hefazat or Odhikar?  Odhikar!

This behavior of law enforcement agencies is nothing new. And the government’s ignorance is also nothing new. In 2011, the then Home Minister prohibited the “Police in White Campaign” immediately.

After that, before the election, they again started the campaign of the police in white. Within a few days, starting from the leader of a small upazila to the central leaders of the BNP, they began to be missing. Elias Ali is still missing! Salahuddin Sahib was found in India.

How many police are there in the country? Where does so much white-dressed police come from? Is Chhatra League, Jubo League involved here? Or someone else? Foreigners?

Why will supporters of different opinions be attacked? Why doesn’t anyone inside the government criticize the wrongdoings? Why aren’t prominent figures like Barrister Sumon or Abdul Kader Mirza arrested?

Who will answer these questions? Everyone knows the answer, but will anyone give it?”