The boy who could have lived
If you're a Harry Potter fan, you must have heard the simple past tense version of this heading. Harry, "The Boy Who Lived," survived the Dark Lord's wrath with the mysterious powers of magic. The Deathly Hallows. Elder Wand. Invisibility Cloak. Yes, his mother's love, too, but a wizardly one at that. As fascinating as that reads on paper, the world of magic and miracles is not for mere mortals. Fairy tale doesn't function at the same wavelength as reality does. In the world that we live and breathe and toil through the vagaries of our existence, we aren't protected by such powers. Life, here, hangs by a tenuous thread. And we have only each other to look out for when there is a threat or danger.
Or, do we?
I have been haunted by this question ever since I got the news of Raj. Md Raj, a nine-year-old who lived in the capital's Dayaganj area, died after being hit by a car last week. This could have been just another hit-and-run tragedy in the teeming streets of our city where people die every day. As pedestrians and vehicles vie for the precious little space that is still available, road casualties are becoming a daily reality. But Raj's death strikes a chord on so many different levels that it's impossible to ignore it nor can it be filed away with ordinary hit-and-run cases.
For what happened to him was not a casualty; it was a murder, a downright denial of his right to life, committed by the very people who were supposed to protect him. Details of the incident as reported by a Bangla daily are quite nauseating. Raj was playing with his friends by the roadside when a car that belonged to the police struck him, leaving him bloodied and battered. As people surrounded the car, an on-duty sub-inspector (SI) of police persuaded them to leave the case to him. He talked to the plainclothes officer inside the car, and after establishing their common professional identity, let him go, soon departing the scene himself with his own police car.
The boy was rushed to two local hospitals, none of which agreed to treat him because of the nature of his accident. He was eventually taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital, where the doctors declared him dead. Had the police officers not fled the scene, tails between legs, knowing the likely consequences of their action, Raj's story could have ended differently.
Hit-and-run is a criminal offence and police officers, of all people, should know it. They should have known better than to run like that because it's common knowledge how cases like this end up for the victims. It's especially unfortunate when the victim is a child, who probably didn't even know what hit-and-run is or why anyone should think of escaping when a little action on their part could save a life. Growing up in a city where the difference between streets and playing fields is getting increasingly blurred, for the lack of open space, he was too young to understand that playing with caution could make a difference between life and death. He probably didn't even know what death is. No one that young is supposed to know that either.
What we should take away from this particular incident is that Raj didn't die on the spot. He died in hospital. He died because he couldn't get there in time, thanks to the inaction and evasion of responsibility by the police officers as well as the lack of moral courage of the local hospitals that refused to admit him, fearing consequences. Someone once said that you don't appreciate life until you get to the other side. Like lying in a hospital bed. I don't know what Raj was thinking in his final moments in hospital. Could he appreciate life as he saw it?
Any hit-and-run incident is tragic but police doing it makes it frightening. Since no case was registered, they will probably get away with it as so many of them did on so many different occasions in the past. It's ironic that the most commonly used slogan about our police force is, "Police are people's friends." We are told to trust the police and help them. The new IGP has assured us that the 200,000-strong force would be made people-friendly. Well, guess what, trust is not a one-way lane. You don't get someone's trust unless you prove your sincerity to earn it. In Raj's case, it's not so much the police action that betrayed our trust, it's the lack of it. The lack of moral courage to do what's right. The lack of empathy for a young boy fighting for his life. The lack of accountability in the police administration.
And the elaborate cover-up that took place to sweep the whole incident under the rug, as if nothing had happened, shows this force, frankly, is not yet ready to work on their credibility issue. And the collateral damage that they've been piling up around us may make it difficult for us to ever trust them again.
Which begs the question, who will we look up to when we're in danger? Will we ever have a friendly, responsible police force? Will they not try so hard to antagonise people? Will common sense prevail? Will our streets be ever safe enough so that we can go out without having to look behind our back like it is enemy territory? Will we be able to give our children a safe and healthy childhood? Can they avoid such unfortunate ends to their life? I really don't know.
What I do know, however, is that when there is no hope, and every chance of a normal life seems lost, we will still have each other, you and me, and us the people in general. A shared belief in humanity and the powers of kindness and compassion for every living soul can work miracles in keeping us out of harm's way. That's probably a tiny drop in a very large bucket, but I keep hoping that it is our best chance at having a peaceful coexistence in this troubled world of ours.
Badiuzzaman Bay is a member of the editorial team at The Daily Star.
Email: badiuzzaman.bd@gmail.com