Commentary: Govt failing to observe basic responsibility of saving life: It`s a shame

In the last couple of days there has been a shocking trend in killings across the country. The body of a student, Sagar Dutta, 19, was found in a hostel in Cumilla’s Race Course area, on the morning of the April 4th. Snigdha Sarkar Dipa, the wife of public prosecutor (PP) Rathish Chandra Bhowmik, confessed on April 7th about her involvement in the March 29 murder of her husband in the statement to a Rangpur court. A father killed his newborn son in Gaibandha, allegedly due to marital discord. On April 5th a man was arrested in Cox’s Bazar on charges of raping his own daughter. Pakshi Union Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) president Sadrul Alam Pintu died on Monday after being hacked and shot, allegedly by political opponents, in Ishwardi Upazila of Pabna, on April 2.

Even journalists are not spared. Bangladesh has ranked 10th in the Global Impunity Index of 2017 of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), downgrading from its previous number. Among other South Asian countries Pakistan ranked 7 while India ranked 12. Bangladesh had ranked 11th in 2016 and 12th in 2015. According to the survey, at least seven cases of journalist murders remained unsolved in Bangladesh in the past decade.

An inevitable crisis resulting from greed, jealousy, restlessness, the devilish nature of politics and deteriorating moral standards of all sections of the populace are reasons behind this terrifying trend. Youngsters, mostly dropouts from schools and having no work or business to do, are out on the streets with guns and daggers or acid bottles with such malefic intentions. The apathy of the society to this escalating crisis and failure of the state to address this problem is most appalling. The menacing trend of the social disorder and killing of neighbour’s minor child or a business friend on the flimsiest pretext either for money or grabbing business or political rivalry are the deadliest urban upheavals in the country.

But a far greater cause would be that there are basically no consequences for such serious crimes — it took something like the Holey Artisan attack for the authorities to get behind the killings of the foreign citizens and bloggers in 2015 — almost a year after their deaths. The politicization of the recruitment of the police is partly the reasons behind their inefficiency. In the murder case of the Italian national Tavella the police famously arrested five people and claimed BNP former ward commissioner Abdul Kaiyum orchestrated the killing — a clear case of politicization and harassment of the opposition, while the real perpetrators went scot-free for almost a year.

Deaths on roads and rivers cannot be ignored as accidents, the government must bear responsibility. The bureaucrats are making this government irresponsible and anti-people.

The police are used politically and they are not effective to save life or protect the people from crime. But the basic responsibility of a government is to give protection to life. They forget that the people spend crores of Taka for the protection of the minister and prime minister.