of 1992, the Suppression of Oppression of Women and Children Act, 2000, the Acid Offences Act, 2002 etc. The President's power of pardoning sentence under article 49 of the Constitution of Bangladesh, in particular, death sentence, is often abused and controversial as there is no guideline for exercising such power. The NHRC considers that guidelines should be formulated by the government soon for exercising this power. However, a recent landmark judgment has been made on mandatory death penalty: In 2005, a renowned human rights organisation BLAST filed a writ petition (see, BLAST and another v Bangladesh and others, Writ Petition No. 8283 of 2005) challenging Shukur Ali's sentence and constitutionality of section 6(2) of the Act of 1995. The High Court Division delivered its judgment on 2 The Supreme Court of Bangladesh has declared mandatory death penalty unconstitutional under the Act of 1995. However, the Court has now the discretion to award the offender with death sentence or life term imprisonment – under the Act of 2000 – depending on the gravity of the offence. March 2010, in which it declared section 6(2) unconstitutional on the ground that the provision of awarding mandatory death penalty curtails the discretionary power of the Court. By time, this Act of 1995 was also repealed in 2000. 14 Article 7 Prohibition of torture 19. The right not to be subjected to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, is absolute under the ICCPR. Article 35 of the Constitution of Bangladesh prohibits torture as it provides that no body will be subject to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Although Bangladesh has acceded to the Convention against Torture, 1984, custodial torture has become a persistent trend in Bangladesh. In response to widespread public concern of lawlessness and crime in society, government has formed various special forces from time to time. For example, the government formed Special Forces with Army, Navy, Bangladesh Rifles and police under different names such as ‘Operation Clean Heart’, Rapid Action Team (RAT), Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and Cheeta. These combined forces led arbitrary arrests, excessive use of force, and custodial torture and deaths. The majority of those detained were subject to severe physical and mental torture.15Suspects are arrested by these special forces in total disregard of due process of law. The suspects are often kept in incommunicado detention16 by joint or special force without external monitoring of the interrogation process. In most cases, after such detention, suspects are killed and declared as “killed in an encounter.” 20. These forces were given special powers to recovery of unauthorised arms, apprehend armed gangs of criminals, and maintain internal securities. Their acts of violence were justified as containing a spree of crimes. RAB which is currently operating as a composite elite force’ 14 On 11 June 1996, Shukur Ali, a 14-year old boy living in Manikganj, raped and subsequently killed a 7-year old girl. Both the accused Shukur Ali and the victim deceased girl were children as per the then Children Act of 1974 (that has been revised in 2013). This implies a decline on imposing death penalty. 15 Tanim Hossain Shawon, ‘Political and State Violence’, in: Human Rights in Bangladesh, ASK, Dhaka, 2004, page 49. 16 e.g., detaining somebody either without acknowledgement or without allowing them access to anyone, such as their lawyer or family 11