Dhaka, May 29: Bangladesh today criticised as "one-sided" an Amnesty International report which said the authorities here frequently resorted to torture and failed to investigate reported custodial killings.
Foreign secretary Shamser Mobin Chowdhury said the
report, released yesterday was "one-sided (and) incomplete in
its information."
"This report unfortunately does not reflect everything
that is a reality on the ground," he told reporters.
Asked if Dhaka was rejecting the report, Chowdhury said
the government was yet to receive it officially.
"Any report has to be objective and it has to be unbiased
it has to take everything into consideration," he said.
In the annual report on 2002, the London-based rights
group said 38 people "reportedly died after torture in army
custody and eight after torture in police custody" and despite
international appeals, independent investigation was not
carried out into these incidents.
The reported deaths in army custody came after Prime
Minister Khaleda Zia ordered tens of thousands of troops onto
the streets in October in a three-month crackdown on crime.
The government contends the army drive reduced
Bangladesh's rampant street violence, but the United States
and the European parliament said they had seen evidence of
human rights abuses.
Amnesty said the authorities had tortured common
criminals and members of the opposition and that a number of
journalists were arrested, including five people who were
filming a documentary for Britain's Channel 4 television and
Shahriar Kabir, who was reporting on attacks against the Muslim
country's Hindu minority.
Bureau Report
