AN unidentified mob killed an upazila chairman by shooting and hacking him before burning his car while he was inside at Fulgazi of Feni district. Three others, including a journalist, who were accompanying Ekramul Haque were injured as the group of about 30-40 people first barricaded the microbus, hurled bricks and exploded crude bombs and shot at the vehicle. As the car failed to escape and stopped, the group dragged and chased away the three and hacked Ekramul and burnt the car with him inside. The body was burned beyond recognition and was sent to Chittagong Medical College for DNA tests for confirmation. The graphic description of the incidence matches with that of action films, but no more, in Bangladesh, its real now.
Deceased Ekramul, 45, president of the upazila unit Awami League, was elected chairman in the upazila election on March 15. He was also editor of local newspaper Feni Pratidin. Some of Ekramul’s associates suspected that he might have been killed over a report published in national daily newspapers against the local lawmaker and some influential people.
Awami League activists and followers of Ekramul, meanwhile, rampaged through the area and damaged vehicles soon after the incident. Ekramul’s supporters damaged a number of vehicles and shops in protest at the killing and attack. People panicked at the incident, with an uneasy calm gripping the area. Most of the people returned home early; shops and markets were closed.
This shocking and barbaric incident came at a time when the seven murders of Narayanganj is not yet off the table. Probably this killing is another blatant proof that killers are in a spree and they don’t care at all about the law enforcing agencies or there is not essentially enough reason to care. We have no doubt that the culture of impunity that was first grown by the state machinery itself through crossfire and “forced disappearances” is returning the dues to the ruling party through feuds from within.
If history teaches anything then it says the trend will continue to worsen unless the ruling elite themselves do not stop extrajudicial killing. We say to the government: enough is enough, look at yourself, look at your men and their grieving wives and children. The killing spree will not end here and the elite as well will not be spared, this is the lesson from history. But, there is another lesson of history: none in power seems to learn from history often.
