Muhammad Zamir, Former Ambassador

Muhammad Zamir, Former Ambassador :Why do the UN, the US and the international arena have to worry about the ongoing anti-drug crackdown in Bangladesh? This is a problem of Bangladesh and the country is trying to address it. The government is here to look into any incident violating the law takes place. It will surely probe the incident. I don’t think the developed countries have anything here to create pressure on Bangladesh in this case.
Do the developed countries protect human rights in every sphere? Does the UN perform its duty? Then why do they have to be concerned in the anti-drug drives? It is the responsibility of the UN as to whether it will task Bangladesh Police with the peacekeeping missions. A resolution demanding security in Palestine was placed at the UN Security Council recently. But a member country of the council vetoed the move. So human rights have to be ensured or determined through the same index or parameter.
All local and international laws and conventions of human rights have to be followed. If anybody is suspected of any wrongdoing, the person can be interrogated and even brought to justice. The most important thing is to protect human rights. The government has repeatedly been saying that the crackdown is being carried out against the drug peddlers who were named on a list prepared engaging all the stakeholders concerned.
It is also noticed that family members of some slain drug peddlers claimed that the latter were not involved in drug peddling. So what the government needs to do is the entire allegation has to be probed. The government also claimed to be doing so. We now have to wait to see what happens.
Based on an interview by Nazmul Hossain, translated by Sayeed Muhammad