Unpardonable crime
Not only they took things that didn't belong to them, but their outrageous act now puts thousands of lives in danger as those trees were planted to create a cyclone-shield for the coastal people. Fourteen years of progress has been sabotaged in just a few days! All that money that was invested to plant those trees have now gone to waste. And that's not the end of our wastes. What about all the police/court time and resource that are now being diverted to this matter? Surely we are paying for that. And if those 30,000 trees are to be replanted, who is going to pay? We again.
Now the question is, what made those “local influential people” think that they can get away with such a crime in broad daylight? Why did they think that the law doesn't apply to them?
The answer lies in the fact that we have developed a nasty habit of "selective application of law" in this country. Soon after the general election, we see cases against those “influential” people of the ruling party miraculously get withdrawn or just vanish into thin air! Policemen are sacked if they arrest anyone belonging to the ruling party and lawyers and judges are rewarded for letting those criminals walk free. No wonder some people think the law doesn't apply to them.
Of course, all those involved in this latest rape of our country, including the local police, forest officials and politicians, must be given the highest punishment available. Unfortunately, this punishment is not going to deter anyone from committing similar crimes again. As long as we are being led by such leaders who think removing someone's mural from a certain building should take priority over, say, upgrading our railway signalling systems that was installed back in 1927, these sort of crimes will not only continue to happen but will happen with increasing frequency.
AL leader Sheikh Hasina and BNP leader Khaleda Zia are partly responsible for this latest crime because they deliberately created an environment in which crimes were encouraged and criminals were funded and protected (with our money).
It is a heart-throbbing scene for us to see the devastation of 30,000 trees in Teknaf. A group of influential touts cut off the trees resulting in the denuding of the eye-soothing beach-land. We are used to learning about such incidents round the year.
The government should take proper steps in this regard.
Bipra Kanungo, Chittagong
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