by DAVID GONZALEZ
Shahidul Alam
The fields, sidewalks and entryways are lighted harshly and drenched in color, giving even the most ordinary locales an ominous air. There are no people, which drives home the point that Shahidul Alam hopes to make: these were perhaps the last scenes glimpsed by the victims of Bangladesh’s Rapid Action Battalion before they died.
Hundreds of extrajudicial killings have been linked to the R.A.B., an anticrime group formed six years ago this month. Little has been done to stop the executions. They have been dubbed “crossfire” killings — after the manner in which the police say the victims died: during an exchange of gunfire.
“Crossfire” is also the name of Mr. Alam’s ambitious new installation at the Drik Gallery in Dhaka, which he hopes will jolt the benumbed psyche of his countrymen.
“The information about the killings is known,” said Mr. Alam, a photojournalist and human rights advocate. “The public has it. The police have it. The government has it. And it has not made a difference. So, we have to find something to provoke people into action.”
The Rapid Action Battalion death squads have, in some sense, filled a vacuum.
“R.A.B. is seen as the force that can take out a lot of violent criminals,” said Brad Adams, the Asia director of Human Rights Watch. “In a place that has become lawless and corrupt, people want something — anything — to happen.”
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