People claiming July Uprising as ‘personal property’ under scanner: IGP

The police are preparing a list of those who consider the July Uprising as their “personal property,” said Inspector General of Police (IGP) Ali Hossain Fakir at a press briefing on Monday.

The police are also on alert so that none can seek undue benefit by taking credits for the 2024 anti-fascist movement, the police chief said at the briefing held at the Media Centre of the Police Headquarters.

The uprising against Awami League government was not engineered by any particular individual or group, and was rather, a movement of people from all walks of life, he added.

“Even, the police force took part in the mass movement,” he further said.

Since assuming office he has taken a first stance against extortion, the police chief said. Extortionists will face action irrespective of their party affiliations, he said.

He also urged media outlets to give the police enough time to detain perpetrators of criminal offences and complete investigations, saying “media trials” put excessive pressures on officers to hastily and arbitrarily apprehend people, who may have no ties to the alleged incident.

Excessive media and public pressure can also push officers to extract confessions in the “wrong way,” he said, reminding of the “Joj Miah debacle of 2004.”

Joj Miah was held in connection with the 21 August 2004 grenade attack on an opposition rally of the Awami League in the capital. Officers allegedly extracted confessional statement from him under duress during a 17-day remand. Later, an investigation found no link between him and the terrorist attack.

The IGP said he believes the unfair treatment of the innocent individual was a result of the excessive pressure created by media.

Sometimes, journalists pose questions in such an awkward manner as if a murder trial has to completed promptly, he alleged.

Some murder mysteries take as long as 20-25 years to solve, he noted.