When a gullible nation is made to believe that things macabre are the order of the day, and it becomes helpless, a monster growls somewhere. It does not need much time to discover that the fiend has lodged in our id. When the realisation comes, the nation may find that it is too late to act. The hydra-headed monster has become almost invincible.
Given the sudden rise in the spate of brutal killings in the country, one finds reasons to liken the country to a land of gore, where the sight of human blood, mutilated corpses and fetid stench of bodies keeps returning.
To speak in brief, the otherwise peace-loving people of the country are being fast brutalised. At the moment, the invaluable human life is worth less than a wind-swept yellow leaf in winter. Readers might recall the soliloquy of Shakespeare's Hamlet narrating the unique and heavenly qualities of man. In the present-day Bangladesh, one would discover to his or her disgust the orgy being enacted by the alter ego of this great creation of nature. As is dreaded, the doppelgangers might start calling the shots in society, thus eclipsing all the finer sensibilities of man.
Among the incidents of savageries and mindless brutalities, one would like to mention some recent ones. The latest one involves a young lady, who had to die as muggers swooped on her on a tranquil morning in Dhaka while she was travelling by a rickshaw. The microbus carrying the muggers dragged the hapless woman as she fell down, and did not let go of the strap of the bag she was carrying. She died on the way to hospital. The brutality was preceded by the cold-blooded killing of a young businessman by a post-teens youth allegedly 'in love' with his wife. It takes us to another incident, that had a young man attempting to carry the body of his wife, whom he killed a couple of days ago, to his village home by a rented microbus. To his bad luck, the owner and helper of the vehicle smelled a rat noticing an odd-size carton. Upon opening the box, they discovered the decomposed body of the woman. A lot of sensational homicides occurred in the capital in last one year. Notable among those: the killing of a 'Peer' and his family members, allegedly by his rivals opposed to his style of spiritual practices; the brutal murder of a TV presenter of religious issues which was reportedly carried out by his rivals. In between, the discovery of four bodies, including children's, in a newly rented house in a Dhaka suburb across the river gave goose bumps to many. In the rural and semi-rural parts of the country, killing of young women after violating them is now a routine occurrence. None feels appalled. Everybody appears to have become inured to these incidents.
The first-ever reported mass brutality in independent Bangladesh was the one of lynching a suspected pick-pocket. It occurred in front of the now-dismantled Gulistan cinema back in 1973. It was soon followed by the midnight killing of 7-8 youths at a Dhaka University dormitory. Perhaps it is the post-independence era of Bangladesh that witnessed the blood-smeared onset of the spate of killings. Those included assassinations, political killings, as well as ordinary murders -- but bone-chilling nonetheless. The spate continued gaining its morbid force as socio-political unrest and tension kept intensifying.
When it comes to hideousness, the recent killings at social level might introduce the country as a blood-thirsty one. Maybe, we are headed to becoming a nation of psychopaths. The mere thought of it will undo many of our achievements. It is not the politicians or the successive governments alone, sociologists also have a great role in stemming the invasive rot.
shihabskr@ymail.com
