The ferocity with which our police force have been falling on upon the political activists as well as innocent pedestrians has struck us all quite dumb. The police excesses have left a pertinent question that demands an answer: Does the political party in power run the police contingent through a mechanism of remote control? The mass arrests and harassment of the common people following the Dhaka siege program launched by the opposition was perhaps the worst manifestation of untenable professional conduct of the police. This obviously reveals the partisan use of police by the government.

People across the world depend largely on their police for the security of their life and property. But the grim reality in Bangladesh, though, has been quite the opposite. In fact, no other institution is so despised by the people in our country as the police. The police and our political leaders are equally responsible for the failure of the police to rise up to the expectations of the entire nation. And one of the reasons for the spurt in crime in recent days is, perhaps, the dilemma of the police as to which criminal to nab and which not to.

The extent to which the police contingent has been politicised, gives us real cause to be anxious. Because it is an indispensable institution without which the country would degenerate into lawlessness and anarchy. The recent ferocity of police on political activists is no doubt the consequence of political control of police. If the purposes of political bosses are served well, the police have nothing to worry about. Therefore, the policemen from top to bottom are now busy pleasing the political bosses to vie for survival, promotion, and lucrative postings.

The journalists, of course, are specially targeted by the police. The ferocity of the police on the journalists during Bangladesh-Australia test match at Chittagong stadium on April 16, was an unthinkable act. At least twenty journalists were injured, three of them seriously, when some policemen led by the DC (port), in an uncalled for action mercilessly beat the on-duty journalists. Amid countrywide protests against such brutality by police, the authorities, as a way of appeasing the journalists, have suspended a police sergeant and closed the DC (port) who led the attack.

The High Court issued a rule on the government on April 19 to explain why it should not form a judicial inquiry committee to probe the incidents of police attack on journalists in Chittagong. The government on April 20 formed a one-member judicial enquiry commission to probe the police atrocities on journalists in Chittagong.

While a congenial relation between the media-men and the police is a must for providing security to the journalists, the hostile attitude of the high-ups in the ruling alliance towards the journalists has encouraged the police in their actions against the journalists.

The police are growing more ferocious day by day, failing to tackle crowds in a democratic manner, particularly the ones agitating against the government. The ferocity of the police crossed all limits in the handling of four recent incidents -- the people's uprisings in Kansat and Demra, against the journalists in Chittagong, and the opposition's sit-in program in front of the prime minister's office.

The discussants at a roundtable styled: "A human rights perspective of police behaviour in crowd management," attributed this particular failure of the police to different reasons, including undemocratic governance and lack of respect for human rights.

The cabinet committee on law and order has approved on May 22, a massive reform in police organogram suggesting an increase of over 26,000 more members. The new organogram aims at better quality of service, training and logistic support, besides increasing the number of officers. Police strength will be raised to 143,578 from the existing 117,224 as per the new organogram.

Increase in number of police force is quite justified as our police department is undermanned in proportion to our population. Present police-public ratio in our country is 1:1300 while it is 1:728 in India. But one finds it bewildering to imagine that partisan recruitment of these new members will lead the police force into a perpetual state of disrepute.

The government has already made a few compromises on the training of 3,500 police officers and constables, recruited on the basis of their party affiliation, to get them inducted permanently before its tenure ends. The training period for the ASPs has been reduced from one year to nine months, for SIs, from one year to six months, and for the constables from six months to four months.

Bangladesh, as an elected member of the new UN Human Rights Council, is committed to promote and protect human rights of all of its citizens. But the human rights are mostly violated by the law enforcers. According to the report of the Asian Human Rights Commission, Bangladesh has failed to protect rights of torture victims. Torture is endemic throughout Bangladesh. It is virtually impossible to have a complaint lodged if the alleged perpetrators are part of the police or the ruling party. The police need to be given exemplary punishment for violation of human rights.

We are really tired of hearing from the prime minister and home minister about the police and people being friends, particularly in all the glitter and glamour of the yearly Police Week programs. The reality remains that our police are yet to convince us that they can ensure the security of life and property of the people. Apart from serious erosion of police image over the years, a steady recklessness in their professional conduct has only added to our woes. The insurmountable gap between the police and people is growing as the police become synonymous with terror and ferocity.

We cannot, however, agree with the call recently made by AL president Sheikh Hasina urging the families of the victims of police ferocity to prepare a list of the policemen who are torturing the opposition MPs and activists for taking revenge. The blame really lies more with the persons who are using police as a political tool than with the offending policemen.

Nevertheless, it is indeed both painful and shameful for the nation to see on TV screens and on the front page of national dailies, the pictures of policemen who appear to take unseemly pleasure in wielding their batons on everyone around including the lawmakers and women. The political leaders now in power must remember that they will also have to submit to the same fate when they will be in opposition.

ANM Nurul Haque is a columnist of The Daily Star.