THE world for Bangladeshi women is becoming narrower as police for whom the prime duty is to protect citizens from illegal activities have become the offenders. It is no assurance that there are many good police officers when some of them commit crimes with impunity. Discipline among police is breaking down and for any civilised people, such a situation is very disturbing. Blaming police is not the solution is also known. Solution has to come from the leadership representing the people. Again that kind of leadership is not only absent, but too much dependent on police power. As per media reports on Thursday, the Officer-in-Charge of Jatrabari Police Station, among five policemen, was accused of assaulting a woman centring a family dispute. The police getting involved in sexual offences is not quite new. What is new is the boldness and frequency of their involvement. The reports of police killing and torturing people for money or any other reasons are being published almost everyday. Any sensible man will agree that only a few such incidents are reported. According to the media outlet, the victim woman filed a case with the Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal-2 in Dhaka accusing the five policemen of Jatrabari and Mugda police stations. Jatrabari OC Abani Shankar called Imran, the brother of the victims to meet him and demanded Tk one lakh, but he refused to pay. The angered policemen then tortured Imran and abused his sister. The incident explains a lot how policemen feel free to extort people putting them in traps, and what they do if people refuse to pay the ransom. The crimes and excesses committed by the police are a dangerous sign of lawlessness in the country and we do not see leadership able to put things right in the country. Everybody is insecure where police is not a disciplined force for protecting the people as faithful law enforcers. We need political leadership elected by the people and acting for the people. A government without the peoples’ support is no less helpless to help people.
