Four arrested after Bangladesh girl 'lashed to death'

Four people including a Muslim cleric have been arrested in Bangladesh in connection with the death of 14-year-old girl who was publicly lashed.

A crowd gathered outside the teenager's house after
news of her death emerged

The teenager was accused of having an affair with a married man, police say, and the punishment was given under Islamic Sharia law.

Hena Begum's family members said a village court consisting of elders and clerics passed the sentence.

She was alleged to have had the affair with her cousin and received 80 lashes

Punishment received

The family members of the married man also allegedly beat the girl up a day before the village court passed the sentence in the district of Shariatpur.

"Her family members said she was admitted to a hospital after the incident and she died six days later. The village elders also asked the girl's father to pay a fine of about 50,000 Taka (£430; $700)," district superintendent of police, AKM Shahidur Rahman, told the BBC.

He said it had not been established yet whether she died because of the punishment she received or another reason.

"We are still waiting for the post-mortem report. In the meantime, we are also looking for another 14 people including a teacher from a local madrassa in connection with this case," Mr Rahman said.

Activists say dozens of fatwas - or religious rulings - are issued under Sharia law each year by village clergy in Bangladesh.

"What sort of justice is this? My daughter has been beaten to death in the name of justice. If it had been a proper court then my daughter would not have died," Dorbesh Khan, the father of Hena Begum, told the BBC.

Hena Begum died after being taken to
hospital

He said those responsible for the death should be punished.

A group of people held a rally on Wednesday in the town of Shariatpur in protest against those who gave the fatwa and demanded action against them.

This is the second reported fatality linked to a Sharia law punishment since the practice was outlawed last year by the High Court.

A 40-year-old woman in the district of Rajshahi died in December, days after she was publicly caned for allegedly having an affair with her stepson.

Nearly 90% of Bangladesh's estimated 160 million population are Muslims, most of whom practise a moderate version of Islam.

Source: BBC

Read More

UK training Bangladesh 'death squad'

British officials in Bangladesh have confirmed Wikileaks reports that the UK is training a police force in the country accused of being a death squad.

Rapid Action Battalion members have been taught "interviewing techniques" and "rules of engagement" by the UK authorities, said the leaked cables.
One message says the US would not offer tactical training to the RAB because of its alleged human rights violations.

The Rapid Action Battalion was set up in 2004
to combat crime and terrorism

UK officials told the BBC the focus of the training was on human rights.
Set up in 2004, the 9,000-strong RAB is accused of more than 550 killings.
The whistle-blowing website Wikileaks has obtained a cache of about 250,000 US diplomatic cables, which it has released to several newspapers, including the Guardian.
In a cable dating from May 2009 published by the Guardian, the US ambassador to Dhaka, James Moriarty, writes: "The US and UK representatives reviewed our ongoing training to make the RAB a more transparent, accountable and human-rights compliant paramilitary force.
"The British have been training RAB for 18 months in areas such as investigative interviewing techniques and rules of engagement."
In another cable, Mr Moriarty notes it would be illegal for the US to offer anything other than human rights training to the RAB because of the force's alleged crimes.

Analysis

Sabir Mustafa BBC Bengali editor

---

Several hundred criminal suspects have died in RAB custody since 2005, and there are strong grounds to doubt the unit's claims these deaths occurred as a result of "encounters" or "cross-fire".

No RAB personnel have been prosecuted for any of these fatalities, which creates the impression it operates with impunity.

On the other hand, it is fair to point out that killings by RAB have been declining since 2008, though have not stopped completely.

The force carries out a range of law and order activities, most of which do not result in any deaths.

But widespread claims that it operated an "arrest-interrogate-kill" policy towards alleged criminals and banned left-wing militants, could support the "death squad" tag.

The RAB cannot be compared, however, to the death squads operated by military regimes in Latin America in the 1970s, as the force is not known to have been used to kill political opponents.

He also notes that despite its record, the RAB had become Bangladesh's "most respected police unit".

However, Human Rights Watch says the force is a government death squad.
In a report last year, it said the paramilitary unit had an "operating culture" of extrajudicial killings, which its members perpetrated with impunity.
British High Commission officials in Dhaka told the BBC that the UK training programme for the RAB had begun in early 2008 and was due to finish in March 2011.
"The focus is on human rights. It concentrated on providing the RAB with the skill-set to conduct law enforcement duties in an ethical manner," said an official, who did not want to be named.
"The areas covered basically include basic human rights training, interview skills, investigation skills, basic scene of crime skills, inclusion on a range of legal and human rights focused events."
The official declined to comment on whether this training was part of any counter-terrorism effort in Bangladesh.
The Guardian reports that the UK's National Policing Improvement Agency provided training to the RAB on crime scene management and investigation, via officers from West Mercia Police and Humberside Police

Source: BBC

Read More