Factional clashes making govt. unstable

Faruqque Ahmed

The breakdown of law and order throughout the country has sent the distress signals to the ruling party as the nation is going through terrible incidents of killing, rapes and other gruesome brutalities on daily basis.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is reported to have asked the law enforcers to use strong hand to deal with the menace of crimes now overwhelming the nation at all levels.

Most people are thinking when the criminalization of the society is going to end and what are in store in the days to come. A total uncertainty has engulfed the nation.

Change of targets
Meanwhile, media reports say that even the ruling party leaders have become mute by the extent of unfolding criminal acts perpetrated by the party men who were once the party backbone to hold the party’s grip on power throughout the country. Awami League activists have now become involved the intra-party feuds killing themselves in factional clashes over taking control of local politics, tender business and toll collection.
Last week three mid-level ruling party leaders were killed in exchange of gunfire at Badda in the city in factional clashes. They were fighting for local control of politics and the business in the city ward.
No sooner had the dust of those killings was settled, another Chatra League leader of the Harzaribagh area lynched a poor boy last Monday for allegedly stealing a mobile phone set. But within 12 hours the culprit was killed in an encounter of ‘crossfire’ by the law enforcers at night. People were happy at the instant justice but the rule of law lost the ground once again to allegedly extra-judicial killing. It appears that a change in the government policy is at work.
Ruling party front activists now feel that the culture of impunity that they were so far enjoying is coming to an end. But the killing of the Hazaribagh Chatra League leader drew sharp protest from the local ruling party activists including lawmaker of the area Fazle Noot Taposh. They blamed elite force Rab for ‘willful killing’ of the student leader.
Rab also killed the Jubo League leader in Magura in a gunfight on Monday last who had earlier shot a pregnant woman in which her unborn baby also received bullet injury in her womb. In another incident another Jubo League leader has been killed in Kusthia on Monday night in a gunfight with Rab. He was accused of killing a party worker in a fight that erupted between members of n Awami League and Schewa Sebak League in a condolence rally on August 15.
Criminalization of politics
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is annoyed at the alleged crimes of the ruling party’s front agencies. Senior party leaders Mohammad Nasim, Obaidul Qader and party general secretary Syed Asharaf made it no secret that those criminals known as party workers are destroying the party image and they have no shelter in the party. Those engaging in these crimes are intruders and they will have no place in the ruling party, they said.
Meanwhile, the situation is only worsening. Seven persons were lynched in three districts by the villages on Wednesday evening in Chapainwabgonj, Norshingdi and Gazipur districts. They were reportedly organized robbers went on their looting spree. Another report on Thursday said a minor boy was lynched in Luxmipur by a shop owner. Yet another report in the day’s newspaper said hospital patients among three raped in the headquarters of two districts.
Earlier two schools girls were raped and poisoned to death in Madaripur showing that rapists bothered least about the dignity of women and their safety at any level. More surprisingly in one incident police baton charged the school students and disbursed them when they held a human chain in the locality demanding justice.
These incidents are symptomatic of the criminalization of politics and the society that has taken a root and being spread throughout the country. Nobody knows when the cruelty in politics will give way to decent democratic practice.
Source: Weekly Holiday