Judicial commission to probe death of six people only

The judicial inquiry commission formed by the government will investigate only deaths of six people reported on July 16 during the quota movement.

Justice Khandaker Diliruzzaman, head of the commission, said this in a briefing after a meeting in the Supreme Court auditorium on Wednesday.

"The circular under which this commission has been formed asked to probe the death of six people on July 16. I will act according to the terms and references of the circular."

Justice Diliruzzaman further said, "In 2018, the government issued a circular abolishing the quota system in government jobs. Challenging the government decision, some children of freedom fighters filed a writ petition with the High Court that on June 5 this year upon hearing the petition cancelled the notification issued in 2018."

"In this situation, students launched their movement to reform the quota system. During this movement on July 16, an undesirable situation was created in the whole country and six people died. In that context, on 18 July the government formed a one-member judicial inquiry commission headed by me under Section 3 of the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1956."

He said the people of the country will be able to provide information and evidences to indentify the causes and persons responsible for the deaths of six persons on July 16 and about the incidents of arson, looting and terrorist activities that took place from July 5-16 by post or email directly by August 6 this year.

"The commission has already started its activities. As part of that, today we have held the first meeting of the commission. And we will call for information and evidences from the citizens of the country through public notice. The procedure of providing info will be detailed in the notice."

Apart from this, other update of the commission would be announced through the press releases, he added.

In reply to a query, he said common legal procedure will continue in other death incidents beyond these six, as those incidents took place after the issuance of the circular.

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