Gory shrine killing
THE news of midnight manslaughter at a village mazar (shrine) in Joypurhat district stopped the early morning adrenaline flow of many Dhakaites yesterday morning. Five shrine inmates were chopped to death -- four in sleep and one forced out of bed and butchered on an adjoining verandah. Three were aged between 60 and 75 including caretaker Noor Uddin and the remainder two were in their late twenties or early thirties. There is thus a touch of geriatric pathos to it. Most of them were kitchen workers. We are shell-shocked by the way they were done to death.
One tends to jump to a copy-book description of the episode: 'this is primordial barbarism relived in the 21st century', so on and so forth. But deeper down, it's actually worse than that. It is an act of cruelty born of evolved dehumanization, a latter-day evil we find ourselves accursed with. It is terrible in its homicidal manifestation.
It has been a premeditated and clearly object-oriented serial murder incident. The locker was broken open and a big amount of cash got stolen making it look like robbery, but that's not exactly how several people who claimed knowledge of the place saw it.
Allegations were made about 'un-Islamic' activities taking place within the shrine premises which apparently moved some people to exasperation culminating into a virulent reaction. One wonders why such an 'ire' should lead to a murderous assault like that, although criminals these days are the least bothered about the consequences of their action.
The 'un-Islamic' activities have not been specified but one would like to think it's an attribution to addiction to toxic things. In the name of religion so many things are happening and somewhere along the line the malicious intent of those who abuse it shows up.
We want the police to get to the bottom of this murder incident and punish the culprits. The gruesome nature of the mayhem and the religious connotation to the location necessitate such a vigorous action.
Comments