Faruque Ahmed
Cruelty to children has taken a sharp turn lately. After the killing of Rajon in Sylhet by powerful local elements last month, Rakib – yet another teen age boy was tortured to death in Khulna on Monday last. And no sooner had the dust of that brutal murder settled, another teen age was killed at Taltoli in the Barguna district the next day.
Yet another news item said police recovered the body of an infant from a body bag left abandoned in front of Dhaka Medical College Hospital on Monday last and the identity of the infant so far remained unknown.
Before these incidents another teen age boy was tortured to death in Comilla two weeks ago by unruly elements. Yet another three and a half year girl was killed at Chandpur by her mother last week reportedly to end the evil influence on the girl. The mother was identifying herself empowered by witchcraft to threat such disorders and she was making money identifying naughty children as suffering from evil influence. As a system of treatment she used to mercilessly beat the children making them senseless.
It appears that children have become soft target of anger and mischief in the hand of rogue elements behaving with boldness to show that they are immune from punishment or have to face trial.
Within a month, the list of gruesome murders of teen age boys, apart from rape of young girls, has grown very big raising genuine questions as to how the rogue elements and unruly goons could become so desperate to challenge the social order with impunity. This lawlessness apparently reflects that the rule of law in the country has totally broken down and the perpetrators are just not bothered about the presence of the government.
Clearly this state of affairs proves that the governance has taken a back seat with the criminalization of the political system and the ruling party cadres are ruling the roost. Lack of governance and the absence of police from fighting crimes and their preoccupation with tackling the opposition party members has created a void giving the benefits to the criminals. Police can now indict any innocent person and opposition leader and worker at will in connection with any crime to fulfill the government’s purpose to destroy the political opposition and also make money.
Interestingly, informed circles claim that a section of the police force has now become part of the crime instead of fighting criminals. The Case of Rajan’s killing has clearly shown that police allowed one of his prime killers to leave the country and immediately after the incident were working on a reported Tk 21 lakhs bribery project to destroy the case. They moved to record the case only when the scale of the cruelty, as flashed out by social media on the child, led people to lay a siege around the local police station. Then the arrest of the prime accused who managed to flee to Saudi Arabia led police to make their first arrest in Bangladesh. But latest report on the case showed that as the protests slowly died out, attempts to cover up the case started and they attempted to deny justice to the victim’s family.
Most people believe that any visible police action following a crime appears to an eye wash trying to help the criminals for mutual interest and which in effect encourage the criminals. Unless the political leadership becomes serious and pull up the law enforcement agencies for their negligence, nothing is likely to change anytime soon.
Source: Weekly Holiday
