The law passed to give indemnity to the Operation Clean Heart, launched by the then BNP-led 4-Party Alliance, has been declared illegal and unconstitutional.

A High Court bench formed by judges Moinul Islam Chowdhury and Mohammad Ashraful Kamal passed the order on Sunday following a hearing on an earlier HC rule challenging the indemnity of the controversial anti-crime joint-force drive starting from 16 October 2002 to 9 January 2003.

From now on any victim of the operation can seek compensation from the government through the HC or any other court, according to the HC order.

Challenging the legality of the BNP-led government’s passage of Joint Drive Indemnity Act 2003, lawyer ZI Khan Panna filed a writ petition with the HC on 14 June 2012.

The HC in response on 29 July of the same year issued rule asking concerned persons why this indemnity law was not incongruous to the constitution and would not be declared illegal.

The then secretaries of law, defence, and home ministry; commander-in-chief of the armed forces; and police inspector general made respondents to the rule that also asked why a Tk 100crore-fund would not be created to compensate the people victimised by the drive.

Sunday was the final day of hearing on the HC rule. During the hearing lawyer Shahdin Malik stood for the petitioner, while the deputy attorney general argued Motahar Hossain Saju for the state.

A total of 24,023 army and 339 navy members along with the then BDR, police and Ansar members joined the anti-crime drive dubbed as Operation Clean Heart that left about 44 people dead and many others wounded for lifetime during torture triggering widespread criticism regarding human rights violation.

However, the erstwhile government claimed that only 12 people died ‘of heart attack’ in police custody.

It was estimated that a total of 11,245 people, including some 2,482 listed criminals, was arrested by the joint force who recovered 2,028 firearms and 29,754 rounds of ammunition.