THE tragic incident before Holy Ashura procession in the old city in the early hours of Saturday killing one young boy in bomb blasts and critically injuring over 80 others of the Shi-ite community came as a big shock to the nation. The observance of the day commemorating the supreme sacrifice of Hazrat Imam Husein (RA) is a common legacy of the Muslims all over the world and was always celebrated peacefully in religious harmony here. But as it appeared the bomb blasts that never happened before on such occasions made it this time bloodstain.
We are relieved as the fatalities could have been more but what left us to wonder is that who are those criminals trying to destroy the religious harmony within the Muslim community in Bangladesh where only a handful of Shi-ites live. Police are working to identify the criminals but it is really a strenuous job to ensure safety of big crowds. The criminals sneaked with the crowd at midnight as a senior police officer claimed to hit but it is appreciable that police were still able to keep the casualties at low.
As it appears no sooner had the tension following the killing of two foreigners calm down and police were busy to nab those killers, criminals hit again stabbing a police Assistant Sub-Inspector this time to death in the city. And now they struck at a soft bally sparking reactions from home and abroad.
What puzzles the nation most is that the volatility is growing quite fast that the police and other security apparatus are increasingly finding them overburdened to maintain the highest vigil to give security at all level. Even they are being killed. However, police are disturbingly getting politically involved and making public statements. They are less efficient as a force of law and order. The law and order situation is never a police matter alone. So responsibility of the political leaders has to be taken into account seriously.
