SCHOOLGIRL Suraiya Akhter Risha succumbed to her injuries on Sunday. The Class V111 student of Willes Little Flower School and College at Kakrail was attacked near her school. It is unbelievable and yet we have to believe that a young man blocked her way and insisted her to agree with his dirty proposal. As she refused to budge and asked him to clear her way the perpetrator stabbed her and ran away. This is a dreaded crime perpetrated in broad daylight. Suraiya was rushed to the hospital, but in vain.
The killer is an employee of a tailoring shop and used to disturb the girl frequently. He collected the ill-fated girl’s mobile phone number when she visited that tailoring shop to make a dress. She put her whereabouts in the formal slip as a customer. Her family filed a case with the police station naming the young man as the lone suspect but police is yet to arrest him. What is terribly annoying is that how a man can dare to put dirty proposal and attempt on a young schoolgirl in the city street where hundreds of people keep on going and such crowd work as social protection in open day light. Police were also around but the boy did not hesitate to attack the girl.
Death of Suraiya proved once again that the security of female students attending city schools and colleges has totally collapsed as the law and order situation is breaking apart. How parents can risk sending their young girls to schools and colleges when they don’t know whether they can come home safe.
What on-duty police do in city streets? If they are not available at sensitive places, their presence in streets raises question as to what purpose they serve when allegations galore that they remain busy most of the time in toll collection from local businesses. Police neglect and growing weakness of social bondage have left our young people and particularly female students vulnerable to abuse and even killing in broad daylight. It is not acceptable but who will make sure the safety of our young boys and girls from such criminals moving around us.
The government is full-time busy fighting terrorism without giving due importance to safety and security of the general public. If there has to be genuine anxiety about terrorism then educational institutions should have received priority for arranging security. The whole police forces are busy in the fight against terrorism without strengthening security at public places. The government has to arrange adequate security measures for all. Making public life difficult and restricted is not providing safety.
