Well-known civic rights activist Mizanur Rahman’s narration of his harrowing experience of being picked-up by police and tortured under custody, published in this newspaper’s online version on June 15, gives us some disturbing snapshots of unlawful actions of our law enforcement agencies. As a keen follower of developments related to human rights, I am reminded of the term used by the Committee on Torture (CAT) of the United nations for these kind of arbitrary and unlawful abductions by the members of law enforcing agencies. It's called “unacknowledged detentions.” Though Mizanur’s four-and-a-half hours-long unacknowledged detention came to an end to the relief of his family, the pains and psychological distress he suffered would no doubt stay with him forever.  Is this unacknowledged detention of Mizanur an exception or deviation in policing practices? Unfortunately, recent trends suggest it has become a preferred tactic to bypass the mandatory legal requirement of producin...