Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK), a leading rights watchdog, has condemned the chilling order by Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP) Commissioner Hasib Aziz, authorising police to unleash submachine guns (SMGs) in “brushfire mode” at the mere sight of “suspicious” armed criminals.
It is a brazen assault on Bangladesh’s constitutional safeguards and global human rights norms by Aziz, a figure widely seen as propped up by the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami’s shadowy influence.
This reckless edict, broadcast verbally via wireless to patrol units and stations on November 11, 2025, reeks of extrajudicial vigilantism, greenlighting summary executions without trial or due process.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, the ASK slammed the CMP chief’s directive as a direct incitement to murder, flouting Articles 31 and 32 of the Bangladesh Constitution, which enshrine the right to life and equal protection under the law.
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“Such orders erode the rule of law and invite a descent into state-sanctioned barbarism,” ASK declared, urging immediate government intervention to rescind the command and retrain law enforcers in human rights obligations. The group warns that failing to act will breed a climate of terror, where citizens live in dread of trigger-happy cops mistaking suspicion for guilt.
CMP chief Aziz’s defense, offered to Prothom Alo, rings hollow: He claims SMGs will target only “armed miscreants,” sparing unarmed civilians, and vows to arrest members of the banned Chhatra League under the Anti-Terrorism Act rather than shoot them outright.
Yet this selective mercy exposes the rot at the heart of his tenureโJamaat’s ideological fingerprints are all over a force that turns a blind eye to its own biases while wielding lethal force against perceived foes. His order also increases the number of permanent checkpoints from seven to thirteen, equipping patrol teams with gas guns, 9mm pistols, and SMGs under his personal “responsibility.” It’s a blueprint for abuse, not accountability.
This isn’t Aziz’s first flirtation with death squads.
On September 18, 2025, the CMP used loudspeakers in the Karnaphuli area to warn property owners of โsevere consequencesโ if they rented flats or houses to Awami League members or affiliated groupsโeffectively stripping citizens of housing rights on the basis of political belief.
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Back on August 13, 2025, he commanded officers to “shoot immediately” in self-defense if anyone brandishes a firearm or sharp weaponโaim for the head, chest, or back, no questions askedโinvoking Penal Code sections 96-106 on private defense. Delivered amid a wave of post-August 5, 2024, upheaval, the missive insisted on live ammo over rubber bullets, citing a brutal hack attack on a sub-inspector chasing an Awami League procession.
Human rights advocates decried it then as a license for overkill, fueling a surge in custodial deaths, mob lynchings, and targeted raids on opposition figures.
The backdrop is a city gripped by fear: Just last Wednesday, gunfire felled BNP campaigner Sarwar Hossainโhimself a convicted extortionist and killerโin Khondokarpur, sparking panic. Friday brought the public stabbing of drug suspect Md Akbar in Halishahar.
And on October 27, Chhatra Dal activist Md Sajjad was gunned down in Baklia over a torn banner, with 10 others wounded. Aziz laments the freedom of killers, such as those responsible for the murder of “top terror” Sarwar Babla, on bail. However, his solution is not justice, but rather a barrage of bullets that mocks the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), a document ratified by Bangladesh that mandates trials for all, not executions by cop.
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Under Aziz’s influence, the CMP has become a partisan tool, facing criticism for fabricating cases against Awami League holdouts, extorting detainees, and remaining silent during the July-August 2024 bloodbath that claimed hundreds of police lives. His orders aren’t self-defense; they’re a violation of the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials, which demand proportionality and restraintโprinciples he tramples with ideological zeal.
Activists demand that the state revoke this dangerous directive and hold Aziz accountable. Anything less betrays democracy’s corpse, leaving Bangladeshis defenseless against a commissioner who confuses his badge for a fatwa. Withdraw the order now, or watch the brushfire consume us all.
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