Editorial
Lawyers' probe
Its recommendations are worthy of note
A high-profile lawyers' investigation into the August 21 grenade attack on Awami League rally has yielded some very important findings about the incident. While one may take issue with the factual basis and authenticity of its findings, very few would disagree with its recommendations. In the first place, the government ought to register the fact that, the formation of a private probe body, in this instance by some very eminent lawyers of the country, to investigate into the grenade blast of 21 August is a manifestation of the people's frustration at the failure of the administration in getting to the bottom of any of the more than a dozen incidents of bomb blast in the country in the last decade or so. Frustrations compound even more when the public are left mute observers and helpless victims of these acts that have occurred with disturbing regularity and continue to be perpetrated with boundless impunity. Admittedly, the lawyers were plagued by certain shortcomings in their effort, not least of all by the fact that they are by profession lawyers and not criminal investigators per se. Thus, their findings may suffer from an inherent lack of adroitness, and that their ability in this regard would be seriously limited is no surprise. Therefore, we do not consider the probe's findings as conclusive or definitive nor have the lawyers themselves claimed as such. However, we are in full accord with the recommendations made by the committee. Their demand that the findings of all the government investigation committees, including the one concerning 21 August attack on the Awami League rally, be made public, bears convincing rationale. Much of the public frustration stems from the opacity of information, and in most cases, no information at all, resulting in all kinds of speculations, assumptions and hypothesisations. One fails to understand the government's seemingly pathological resistance to the idea of sharing information with the public whose safety and security it is for the government to protect. We find it rather ludicrous that while the public is denied information on these incidents by the government, startling information can be had from investigative reports published elsewhere such as the Jane's Intelligence Review Report on Chittagong arms haul which we carried in our front page yesterday. The recommendations of the lawyers probe body are worthy of note and we suggest that the government consider these without any prejudice.
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