THE Tuesday’s fierce clash between the followers of two rival ruling party leaders in Narayanganj has again exposed the nasty side of power politics. Both the leaders were so much arrogant that they even did not bother to lock in street fight defying the directives of the party high command. The incumbent mayor Selina Hayat Ivy, who was on the spot, was also injured during brick bating by the opponent group. The entire city was rocked when both sides exploded cocktails and fired gunshots. At one stage, a follower of present lawmaker Shamim Osman was caught with a pistol and severely beaten by the opponent groups. We saw the above sequences in television footages.
One thing is clear like daylight that it was impossible for some street hawkers to conduct an attack against the Mayor without patronization of any powerful person. Obviously, someone fuelled the longstanding discontent of hawkers to start fight against the Mayor. Still, one is blaming other at open press conferences for the incident. Both leaders are highly responsible persons but none of them are taking the responsibility.
In no way conducting an attack on any person is acceptable. It is too serious, when Mayor Ivy told the media that lawmaker Shamim Osman had allegedly engineered the plot in a bid to kill her. It is also not acceptable if a ruling party lawmaker tries to save his cadre, who was severely beaten by mob after being caught with a pistol, in the television interviews. Here, only the police could extract the truth by conducting an impartial investigation.
Awami League’s General Secretary at a press conference in capital announced that action would be taken against them who were responsible for tarnishing the party image. We think there is no alternative.
It becomes essential to punish not only the attackers but also their godfather, if any, to prevent much bigger incident in the future. At the same time, the government will have to investigate why the police had allegedly remained inactive during the clash. We are surprised seeing that the district administration and police both failed to gather advance information about the clash. In the recent years, the locality has become infamous for various crimes, including kidnapping and murder. The Narayanganj seven-murder incident is still alive in the mind of people.
We like to make it clear; the Tuesday’s incident was a criminal offence. It cannot be treated as a mere internal conflict between two ruling party leaders. So, the law enforcement agency cannot disregard their duty to take step in line with country’s existing law. And it is the only way to assure the general people of Narayanganj who have been held hostages by terrorism. A city cannot be held hostage by terrorism for years.
