THE KILLING of a Hindu priest at a temple at Debiganj in Panchagarh district in which a devotee also received critical bullet injuries proved once again the delicate law and order situation and a serious social malady beyond. We condemn and protest the incident and make the point once again whether the government will be able to reign in the situation and stop recurrence of such incidents without people’s help. It needs strong social voice and public resistance but the leadership is not in sight as local terrorists and criminals are taking advantage of the government’s isolation from the people. Where democracy can’t work, people’s voice remains shut and criminals dominate the scene, terrorists feel free to hit any target. It is more true, when government is using police on political purpose instead of fighting criminals.
Terrorist groups are spreading their wings in such a situation when the global community which is very sensitive on the presence of IS terrorists in Bangladesh may exploit such attacks to establish their claim that IS exists in Bangladesh. In fact, some online portals have already blamed the attack on the IS outfits and it may be seriously damaging the country’s image.
As it appears, every week we are witnessing gruesome killing of innocent people including children and it appears that in attack on religious places or killing of innocent children criminals show they are quite fearless and not bothered about the presence of the government. Confessional statements of two killers of four teenage boys in Habigonj showed they never had thought of facing justice. It is in fact utter failure of our system of governance to at least give the feel in the unruly people that people watch their criminal activities and nobody can escape punishment. Contrary to it, a sense of impunity is at work at all level because of impunity enjoyed by political leaders and workers. Since the four murders in Habigonj about a dozen killings have already taken places in the country over the past week showing serious breach of public safety at all level.
Escalating terrorism and intolerance are poised to destroy religious harmony in the country and the mindless killing of children and adults are emerging as the biggest threat to the country’s peaceful social fabrics.
Terrorists earlier attacked Kantaji temple in Dinajpur, a Shiite mosque in Bogra and Hossaini Dalan in the capital. They killed two foreigners and raided priests on churches. In our view the situation can’t be simply explained by a breakdown of law and order, it requires comprehensive approach to face it. It is not simple police case but a malady of both criminal and social nature. But the tragedy is that a political leadership that rely only on police power cannot be able to sort it out.
