When mob justice takes hold
THE past one week ending on May 31 has been one of the blackest in recent times. The fragile peace that held the country for more than a year after 1/11 has been shattered. The recent spurt in the incidence of crime like murder, lynching to death, burglary, rape, extortion and kidnapping has created a feeling of alarm in the citizenry once again. The capital city and even the rural outbacks in the country seem caught in a frightening coil of fear.
People saw the most chilling report in all the dailies in the morning of May 31. The report indicated that a group of students of S.M. Hall of Dhaka University beat to death a student of Bangladesh Medical College at Dhaka suspecting him to be involved in stealing a mobile phone. The victim, a 22 year old Riad as the newspaper report indicated, entered a certain room of S.M Hall at about 9-30 in the morning on that fateful day and picked up a mobile phone while its owner was in the bathroom. The report further said that the mobile phone was later found in his pocket and students beat him unconscious. Police rescued Riad in a critical condition and admitted him to Dhaka Medical College Hospital and later shifted to Bangladesh Medical College , where he succumbed to his injuries at about noon on that day.
In another incident in the third week of May, people learnt from newspaper reports, that agitated bus passengers beat one robber to death as the gangsters were fleeing after committing robbery in a passenger bus on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway. Media reports earlier revealed that two youths were beaten to death at Mohakhali on May 21. There is a general sense of alarm across the country aroused by a recent spurt in violence involving mostly the youth and including every thing from mugging to robbery to arson to murder. Two days after the Mohakhali lynching, people learnt with stunned disbelief that three alleged river pirates were beaten to death at the confluence of the river Norai and Balu in the Khilgaon thana area.
Unhappily, ill-equipped small contingents of police deployed in some areas who appear to be immobile and most often gossiping among themselves sitting in a tranquil zone are unlikely to bring such gangsterism and lawlessness under control. That they are ill-equipped and lack proper training to overpower these dreaded criminals is demonstrated by the fact that in different situations at Bagmara, Rajshahi and Gazipur and Kochukhet area of the city, the gangsters snatched even weapons from their possession. Besides, they look helpless and dumbfounded in presence of a thousand-strong mob that eventually swells around the scene of looting or hijacking.
In fact, the mass frenzy is because of police inaction in most cases. In many cases as reports carried by the media reveal, fed up with the increasing incidence of theft, extortion looting and even repression of young girls in their areas that brought no response from the law enforcing agencies, the villagers and locals out of pent up anger took law in their own hands and had beaten these gangsters, sometimes on suspicion, even to death. Despite the IGPs commitment to build a people-friendly police force in the country in a salient departure from the past tradition and practice, things have fallen far short of people's expectation.
The report carried by the media ( The Daily Star ) on May 28 last about the suspension of the Dhanmondi Police Station O.C and two S.Is on charges of recording a robbery case as a theft case at a house in Dhanmondi suggests that policing work like recording a case and preliminary investigations at the ground level are still largely flawed. In another report on May 28 last (The Daily Star) it was learnt that Sajib, a garments worker living at Khilgaon, was severely beaten and stabbed to death by the neighbours for causes that still remain shrouded in mystery. While analyzing the causes of such frenzied action and lawlessness, crime watchers find to their dismay that other than police investigation and intervention that are highly flawed and corrupt, judicial system has been highly insensitive and dilatory prompting such frenzied action .
But the gruesome murder of medical student Riad by lynching in the hands of a group of university students has to be viewed in a different light. Leaving aside the fact whether Riad was a drug addict or not, the way a section of university students behaved with a fellow student in inflicting such a brutal punishment for such a minor offence is totally unbecoming of any one belonging to an enlightened society. This incident like others occurring in different parts of the country in the recent past has brought to focus the cracks and tremors that have developed in the society over the years. It is a plain act of savagery which undermines the country's justice delivery system. In fact, civilized and educated societies do not allow anger to descend into barbarism.
Reports of grotesque nature of killing are coming up with sickening frequency from rural outbacks also. Yet another Daily Star report on May 31 indicated that Sirajganj Railway police recovered two unidentified mutilated bodies from the railway track near Ghatina bridge in Ullapara with their heads severed and taken away. As revealed by Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner on May 30 last, ten people were killed in separate incidents ? four shot dead by gunmen, two in encounter with Rapid Action Battalion, three lynched by mob and one killed by a neighbour.
Understandably, much of the street justice is a reaction to the country's ineffectual criminal justice system. There prevails a crisis of confidence in police as evidenced by many a report carried by the media. Winning court cases, convictions and prison sentences against even the notorious offenders like extortionists and traffickers is a " Herculean task", say legal experts.
It has been revealed in a Judicial Commission report made public in recent past that about 75 per cent cases end up in acquittal of the offenders because of weak and flawed investigation report. Many of the hit men, even if can be identified, are often untouchable in the courts as well as outside. They routinely terrorise witnesses and the relations of the victims and thwart investigation. A failure to bring crime of any sort under control could cost not only the image of the government but the whole experiment with democracy. Peace loving citizens hate chaos, and the unremitting violence and lawlessness they see everyday have shaken them to the core. A noted social scientist in the country says, "Most people exhibit their frenzied behaviour as a protest against the 'helplessness' or inaction of the government in dealing with crime'.
While admitting the deterioration in the law and order situation with a marked rise in murder, kidnapping , robbery, snatching of police weapons and hostage bid demanding ransom money, the Adviser to the Home Ministry and the IGP have asked the law enforcing agencies to step up their activities in curbing crime. But when one sees a report appearing in some Bangla dailies on June 4 last that a four year-old Sourav, son of Anwar Farazi in Datterhat village of Madaripur sadar upazila has been indicted as the no.1 accused in a murder case with a photograph showing Sourav attending the District Judge's court in Madripur in the lap of his father, then one is led to believe that IGP's words have fallen on deaf ears. And that's the reason that things are not improving.
People tend to believe that any stirring in the police administration and a persistent pressure from the power that be, especially the non-party CTG of the day, have much to contribute in preventing or controlling crimes. For that the country needs a comprehensive crime code to spell out violations of the law, a truly determined professional and well-paid police force and a functional judicial system.
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