Law and order: Signs are ominous

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Shamsul Huq Zahid
After a lull for nearly one and a half years since the emergency was proclaimed in January last year, crimes and criminals are back on the streets of Dhaka city with a big bang.
A middle-aged director of a readymade garment factory was shot and killed in broad daylight last Monday in the heart of the city, Purana Paltan. He was not alone to die in the hands of criminals on the day. An elderly man who came from his village home to the capital for treatment was killed by the members of the notorious 'malam' (balm) party at Mirpur and a young man was strangulated to death by unknown assailants at Mohammadpur.
Only a day before, muggers shot and injured an employee of the Advanced Pharmaceutical Company (ACI) and took away Tk. 4.5 million from him in the city's Tejgaon industrial area.
There is no denying that the law and order situation is better than anytime in the recent past. But most residents of Dhaka city are worried by the prospect of the return of the old days when criminals ruled the streets. Since the early part of the current calendar year, there has been a rise in crimes throughout the city. The police records, however, might speak otherwise. But the reality is that incidents of murder, mugging and extortion have gone up recent months.
The adviser in-charge of the home ministry, unlike most of his political predecessors, while attending a meeting on law and order situation last Monday at his ministry, admitted that there has been some deterioration in the law and order situation of late in spite of the emergency.
He told newsmen after the meeting that law enforcers had been asked to be tougher on the miscreants. The adviser said police, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and intelligence agencies would have to launch drives against criminals without any further delay.
The adviser listed two upcoming religious festivals-Eid-ul-fitr and Durga Puja-and possible relaxation of emergency rules before the next general election might embolden the criminals to a stage a comeback in a big way.
The directive asking the law enforcers to be tough on criminals from now on is bound to raise a very logical question: Should the law enforcers go soft on criminals in a situation when crime incidents are less in number?
The law enforcers are supposed to maintain law and order with all seriousness. There is no room for them to show leniency to crime and criminals.
Yet nowhere in the world, the police and other regular law enforcing agencies demonstrate the same agility and toughness all the time. There are peak and lean times.
But the RAB units in the Dhaka metropolitan area, it seems, have been relaxing for quite a long time. The toughness and swiftness that the RAB used to demonstrate before the proclamation of emergency are now absent, at least, in Dhaka city.
The RAB patrol vehicles are seen less frequently on the streets and the arrests made on basis of intelligence work are far less in number than before. One can only guess about the reasons behind the reduced activity of the RAB.
Notwithstanding the criticisms often made by some human right organisations and a section of media for the killing of hardcore criminals in 'encounters', the RAB is still a popular law enforcing agency.
When law and order worsened, the immediate past political government involved the member of the armed forces under the 'Operation Clean Heart' to help improve the situation. But that was a temporary solution to an old problem.
However, the RAB was launched on March 26, 2004 as an effective solution to a fast deteriorating law and order and within months the people from all walks of life, particularly the businessmen who are always the main targets of criminals, had started feeling the difference. The swiftness and toughness displayed by the RAB in dealing with criminals, mainly the top ones, yielded welcome results.
The RAB became so effective that a chamber body had adopted a resolution thanking it (RAB) for its decisive actions against criminals. The chamber, however, did not make the resolution public for fear of being castigated by so-called protectors of human rights.
Historically, crime incidents, particularly mugging and extortion, go up before two Eid festivals when financial transactions peak. But nobody wants to see the return of insecure days.
There is no denying that the police personnel are more active these days than before. But because of manpower and logistical problems they cannot cope with the problem of law and order properly.
The best way to arrest the slide in the law and order would be to gear up the activities of the RAB and ask its members show their real teeth to the criminals. If the authorities concerned hesitate to do that, they might find themselves in real trouble soon. It is obvious there would be relaxation of the emergency to pave the way for electioneering by the political parties. And criminals might exploit that opportunity to come out of their hideouts, take shelters of the political parties and indulge in criminal activities.