The High Court (HC) Monday asked the Home Secretary to publish within seven days through a gazette notification the probe report on a judicial inquiry commission on the 2001 post-polls violence, reports UNB.
The court also asked for submitting before it within April 3 a report on the compliance of its directives.
An HC bench comprising Justice Dr Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque and Justice ABM Altaf Hossain came up with the orders after the state submitted the 1033-page report before it.
Following a writ petition filed by the Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh (HRPB) in 2009, the HC asked the government to form a judicial inquiry commission to investigate torture on the minority communities, especially Hindus, and the opposition activists, and submit a report within six months.
Accordingly, the government had formed a commission which submitted its probe report to the Home Ministry after a year with some recommendations, including identifying the perpetrators and ways to end post-polls violence.
However, the government neither made the report public nor submitted it to the court.
In the wake of fresh spate of violence targeting the minorities after the 10th parliamentary elections held on January 5, Advocate Manzill Murshid filed the petition on January 22 this year seeking HC directions on the government to make the probe report public.
On the day, the same HC bench directed the Home Secretary to submit before it by February 2 the probe report on the judicial inquiry commission on the 2001 post-polls violence.
The court had also issued a rule upon the government to explain in two weeks as to why the probe report should not be made public.
BSS adds: The High Court Monday ordered the Superintendent of Police (SP) of Lalmonirhat district to arrest the persons responsible for forcibly occupying the land of a Hindu family in 48 hours, reports BSS.
A bench comprising Reza-Ul-Hoque and Justice ABM Altaf Hossain issued the order on a writ petition filed for Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh (HRPB) bringing allegation that a ruling party leader forcibly occupied a piece of land belonging to a Hindu family in village Rasulpur under Patgram Upazila of Lalmonirhat district.
The petition attached a newspaper report, published in an English daily on March 2, saying that on February 9, Bhabani Kanta Sen and his two sons were picked up by a group of ruling party men and held hostage at the house of a Awami League (AL) leader. Later, they compelled Sen and his sons to sign a non-judicial stamp, stating that they were handing over the ownership of a 32-decimal plot of land to Rabiul Islam, president of the AL Bawra union unit.
The court asked the authorities to submit a report by a week elaborating what steps were taken to implement its order.
It also directed the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to submit a report by 30 days after investigating the matter.
