THE BRUTAL murder of Abu Sayeed – a Class four student of a primary school in Sylhet divisional town by three neighbours including a policeman, one local RAB informer and a ruling party leader, invariably tells us the horror now threatening the people’s safety, particularly of the school children.
We know crime gangs are now moving openly abducting and killing persons and committing crime thus creating a sense of panic and helplessness. A local criminal gang with the help of members of law enforcing agencies picked up the school going child Abu Sayeed last Saturday when he was going to school. Killers said they wanted to set him to free in exchange of money but later they killed him as the boy identified them as local uncles. His body was recovered on Sunday from the rooftop of a house in the area in which the policeman lives.
Such easy killing of a child for money surely was not an isolated incident. Such criminals under the political protection of the ruling party are active all over the country including the capital city. They control the police and RAB because they have political connections in the government. Only on rare occasion, the police or RAB show courage to arrest them. In some cases desperate local people catch them and police have to oblige.
It is a sign of serious breakdown of authority, not of the government only also of the law enforcing agencies encouraged by the ruling party leaders. When criminal gangs enjoy direct or indirect government protection one can easily imagine how freely such criminal gangs making public life miserable and helpless in villages. All stories do not come to the press, because suppression of such news is easy with the help of political influence and police.
No government whether elected or not can remain comfortably in power when criminal gangs along with ruling party men, police and RAB work hand in hand.
We do not say all police and RAB members are cooperating with criminal gangs. But the politics of blaming the opposition for killing and abducting offers encouragement for crimes to be committed and shifting the blame on others. But people are losing confidence in the government’s ability to govern. Protecting the government itself is not governance.
