Wipe them out

Photo: AFP

After his arrest, people from all strata of life congratulated the law enforcing agencies on their great achievement.

But it was too late for the government to arrest him. If he had been arrested earlier, there would have been no bloodshed across the country. Now to bring the culprits to justice is a major task for the government. They should be given exemplary punishment so that no militant group can emerge in the country in future.

Finally Shaikh Abdur Rahman, the son of a Rajakar who turned himself into the nation's spectre of horror by masterminding countrywide synchronized bomb blasts on Aug 17 last year and later killing judges at Jhalakhati and people at the court premises of Gazipur, Chittagong and elsewhere by his suicide squads has been caged, thanks to the foolproof busting operation of Rab and other law enforcers. It reminds us of a once oft uttered lampoon, "a Rajakar is a Rajakar for all time". So the Rajakar's son carried the lamp of his father to turn this land into another Afghanistan, if not a mini Pakistan. God saved us from the evil doers. Now the nation wants to crow over the capture of Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai, a devil incarnate who along with his long list of adherents stalked various places under Rajshahi Division, took law into his hands and in the name of eliminating members of the outlawed Sharbahara Party began killing men not subscribing to his opinions of Islami Hukumat, and plundered money and property as if there was none to touch or teach him. He is the demon who killed a man in Natore and hanged him down in a tree to cower people and display his wickedness and immunity.

It has been again amply proved that our law enforcers can do or undo anything to capture the criminal, however powerful they may be or wherever they may go into hiding. What they need is the green signal of the powers that be and freedom to act on their own. The virulent anti-state activities of the outfits, JMB and JMJB headed by the above two that they began since 2002 were brought to the notice of the coalition government by the print media many times (the DS in particular was relentless) with caution of bad omen for the country, but the government headed by the BNP turned a deaf ear to them and that helped the outfits to grow further. Had not the government glossed over this issue, the country would not have lost so many lives and earned the bad name of a terrorist country. Even after the countrywide bomb blasts the government did not appear to be serious enough about hunting down of the above Bin Ladens of Bangladesh. If that could be the case we would not have lost two judges and many other innocents. And only after the said carnages, and outside pressure, did the government find itself on is toes to swing into action and hundreds of Bangladeshi al-Qaeda followers were arrested.

Had there been any further delay to order their arrest at any cost, the country would have faced much deeper trouble. To retriever our lost image, the religious outfits with hidden agenda must be wiped out lock, stock and barrel.

Ahmed Niaz, Dhaka