Mob lynching on suspicion!
Reportedly, five people have been beaten dead recently and 10 hurt including several policemen and four mentally challenged persons. Even a mother who had gone to a school to inquire about the admission process was beaten to death, suspected of being a child kidnapper. It is abhorrent and disguting to see people falling victims of public lynching in several parts of the country over a period of several days. While there cannot be any scope or ground or justification for resorting to mob "justice", what makes it even worse is that in this instance, the victims were merely "suspected" of being child-snatchers.
The latest spate of mob attacks began after a rumour was spread recently that for the successful completion of the Padma Bridge, human sacrifice at the construction site is needed. And despite warnings by the authorities not to spread such rumours and to guard against such stories, even people seen to be doing only so much as talking to kids have become victims of lynching.
This, unfortunately, is a reflection of how gullible we are and how bigoted we have become to believe, even in this day and age, that human blood is propitious for any human endeavours to be successful, particularly a grandiose project of the kind of the Padma Bridge, and people are on the prowl to kidnap children. And that we must take law into our own hands and apply our mode of justice instead of handing the so-called suspects over to the law is incomprehensible.
We believe that the police should embark on doing more than issue warnings that these are illegal and criminal acts. In fact, they should go after and apprehend those that have indulged in violence and also the source of the rumour and bring them to justice. In this regard, we believe that the local leaders at the village level also have a responsibility to make people aware of the consequences of succumbing to rumours and falsehood. Such raving mad behaviour must be curbed.
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