Special Correspondent: The killing of four alleged opposition workers on Sunday night at Kazipara in the city’s Mirpur area came as a terrible shock to the nation while the mystery over the killing remained unresolved and only deepening. Police claimed locals have lynched them while preparing to commit violence. Bodies of the three victims, recovered from the spot, showed no mark of torture but at least 57 bullet wounds on the corpses. It raises the question then whether police are telling the truth or protecting the criminals. We do not believe it was work of police. Police would not have so many bullets to kill three persons. They must have been used to shield murderers. We cannot accept that as public servants all of them, specially the law enforcers will act against public interest and not protect people against brazenly committed. It is shocking to the nation to know about the presence of armed gangs killing people in the streets or picking them from homes. As it appears, a very bloody situation is now unfolding in the name of crashing the opposition movement for fresh election. Moreover, whoever may have done it in the darkness; such incidents will only pass panic in the people and spread the lawlessness throughout the country. It is true, the gruesome killing may slow down anti-government agitation but we fear it may encourage more outfits to commit bloody crimes and slowly turn the country into a valley of death. In fact, a two-way power struggle is now being fought in the streets where petrol bombs and other violence are making common people their targets and police and armed gangs are killing people in the night. Any civilized country where any accountable government is in existence will be alarmed by the killing of three persons, one of them, receiving 22 bullet wounds, another 19 bullets and the third had 16 bullet wounds. But the government is totally indifferent about some gruesome killings. It is a shame that we are citizens of a free country where police can be abused so easily for saving criminals for reasons not normally understandable. It is again a mockery of truth when police have filed a case with Mirpur thana accusing 100 to 150 unnamed persons for the killing. Not only there are criminals who kill people brutally under alleged police protection, the persons are taken from their residences or anywhere claiming to be plainclothes police. But the authorities deny any such arrests had been made by them thinking that will end the responsibility of any government authority in this regard.But what such act of killings or disappearances speak of is that the government is unable to protect its people. This is the reputation a government worth its name would like to have.It is a shame to all of us that we deserve this kind of incompetent and weak governance.
