The beasts in the midst of beauty

It was beauty all around. Fathers walking their daughters taking in the many colours of life. Mothers holding their infants trying to make sense of the world. Friends moving shoulder to shoulder. Couples hand in hand. A nation on its feet in a fury of festivities. It was that beauty of human spirit, of bonding and of celebration that makes us human. But the beasts were on the prowl. And true to their nature, they struck when dark fell.

Thus the merry celebration of the Bangalees' biggest festival was tainted when a group of 30 to 40 men preyed on some 20 women on the Dhaka University campus on Tuesday evening. Of the victims, at least two were partly stripped off, one had bite marks on her body and another  lay on the street unconscious. 

If this molestation is sickening, the police response is shocking. According to multiple eyewitnesses, the assault continued for about an hour and two cops were standing within a few yards. They did nothing, except for looking on. Just about 20 yards away was another police team. When a group of students belonging to Chhatra Union reported the incident and sought help, the cops sat on and said the place of attack was “outside our duty area”. Allegedly, police also released at least five culprits caught by the public. They will have to do some serious explaining about it in the coming days.

But first thing first -- if a trained force isn't capable of protecting fellow citizens under attack only yards away, what is it capable of then? When the men in uniform can't wake up to the call of duty as emergency as this one, maybe it's time for their officers to tell them that they weren't worthy of the uniform. After all, who pay for the uniform?

Such a cowardly response from the police gave the attackers a free rein to go on with their grotesque raid, effortlessly and confidently. It's a telltale sign that the attackers were not your everyday sex offenders. If they were just anyone in the crowd, they would mingle in the mass and flee, not linger on, enjoying themselves as they were. Who, then, are they and what is the source of their audacity?

But something else feels seriously wrong here. For generations, the Dhaka University campus has been the epicentre of some of the Bangalees' greatest movements and celebrations. The Language Movement, the Liberation War movement, the surrender of the Pakistani forces, just to name a few. It's where the Bangalees go, again and again, to protest because it somehow has come to symbolise freedom, unity and power of common men and women, or to celebrate because it symbolises festivity and joyful spirit as well.

But suddenly, it seems it is becoming a place to fear and, so, better avoid. Less than two months ago, progressive writer-blogger Avijit Roy was hacked to death and his wife badly wounded not very far from where Tuesday's barbaric attacks took place. Now, if Avijit Roys and our mothers, sisters and daughters can't walk without fear for their lives and dignity through the campus that symbolises freedom and free-thinking (!), where shall they go? 

In the past, evil forces have tried and failed to prevent us from being who we are: Bangalees, defiant and resilient. We remember the gruesome attack during the Pahela Baishakh celebration at Ramna Batamul in 2001 that killed 10 people. We also recall the 1999 attack in Jessore on a Udichi cultural programme that too claimed 10 lives.

But we've defied their threats and fought back. And today, more than ever, we need to be as relentless as the dark elements we are fighting.

To the naked eye, Tuesday's attack may seem an act of a few bad apples. But that's all you need for a basket-full of apple to rot. Because when cancer strikes, it strikes a single cell or a small group of cells first before it grows and grows and eventually knocks down the whole body. And if a nation is a human body, we, as a nation, seem to have been struck in more than one cell. The quicker we respond, the better our chance of survival is.