Containing crime

Before blaming any government we should accept that terrorism and lawlessness did not emerge overnight. There was some fragmented and local terrorism and lawlessness in the first decade of our independence, but it did not grossly violate our way of life.

So we can keep that decade out of this debate very confidently. However, during that decade the nation witnessed terrorism, killing, coup and re-coup by a few over ambitious military and civil personnel. In my view, the current terrorism and lawlessness are to be projected on that backdrop-- the way state power was looted and booted. We have witnessed how morale of the youths had been taken away and power monger politicians sold themselves to military rulers. That was the grand start. What currently the nation has been watching is a great race of terrorism without a finishing line. The unfortunate part of the race is that here the athletes make thousand for themselves but millions for their sponsors. Moreover, at the end of the day, certain athlete may find his heart was already weak or he himself crossed the line and got fired. The newspapers make hot selling story on the demised athlete, but ignores the sponsors who nurtured the profession. Who are the sponsors? Is it a question without answer?

Muftah Wali has praised the current government drive to curb terrorism and did not forget to criticise the past government for its failure to do so. The current government made an attempt to bring a circuit breaker in several ways including the controversial Operation Clean Heart (can anyone tell how a heart is cleaned) and the ongoing operation through Rab. If the Operation Clean Heart was so successful in curbing crime, why the government postponed and indemnified that action? This is because, the way the alleged criminals were getting 'heart attack' was unusual and the law was not exercised properly. Now the alleged criminals are getting cross-fired. In my view this is extra judicial killing: justice before trial. The state and a person are not same. A person can become a criminal, but the state cannot do so. The state can bring the alleged criminal before justice. We have watched Imdu, Ershad Sikdar and many others being brought to justice. Why does the state fail to bring similar criminals to justice? Every day Rab comes up with the same fairy tales. I think Muftah Wali, like many other citizens of Bangladesh, knows the reasons why the alleged criminals are dying in crossfire.

My humble question to Muftah Wali: do you see any change in the crime chart? More athletes are on their way.