Alarming law and order slide
Friday, 26 September 2008
Md Shahiduzzaman
TAKA six lakh and 24 thousand were snatched from businessmen in a span of six hours in Dhaka city in four separate incidents in a single day early this month. Four businessmen suffered bullet injuries from the muggers in these incidents. In the third week of September, a garments factory owner was gunned down heartlessly and an amount of Taka 5.2 million in cash was robbed from a multinational company executive. Nine persons were murdered in Dhaka during the same week and some of them were snatched too. According to media reports, the top terror dons -- who fled the country after one eleven -- are returning to reestablish their happy stamping grounds of the past. The terror dons have resumed their old ways of calling up their targets -- mainly businessmen -- to demand money and threaten them with dire consequences if they fail to pay up.
A scan of the regional press shows that the situation is no different outside the capital city. Even the Adviser for Home admitted that there had been a decline in law and order. But more than the acceptance of the reality, what is of the utmost importance for the government is to initiate tough action by law enforcement agencies to arrest the rising crime rate.
There is no denying that the government remains busy setting the stage for the national elections. But this is no excuse for neglecting the law and order. The law enforcement agencies need to do their work with utmost efficiency to improve the law and order.
The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) which scored well, in the past, against serious crimes, has been performing not up to the mark for quite some time. So, RAB should be activated to do its work efficiently. The highest authority of the government should direct the law enforcement agencies to prevent the reentry of terror dons into the country to re-establish their crime zones. They should be nabbed without wasting time. This is very important for the smooth holding of polls and leave a relatively better law and order for the next government.
TAKA six lakh and 24 thousand were snatched from businessmen in a span of six hours in Dhaka city in four separate incidents in a single day early this month. Four businessmen suffered bullet injuries from the muggers in these incidents. In the third week of September, a garments factory owner was gunned down heartlessly and an amount of Taka 5.2 million in cash was robbed from a multinational company executive. Nine persons were murdered in Dhaka during the same week and some of them were snatched too. According to media reports, the top terror dons -- who fled the country after one eleven -- are returning to reestablish their happy stamping grounds of the past. The terror dons have resumed their old ways of calling up their targets -- mainly businessmen -- to demand money and threaten them with dire consequences if they fail to pay up.
A scan of the regional press shows that the situation is no different outside the capital city. Even the Adviser for Home admitted that there had been a decline in law and order. But more than the acceptance of the reality, what is of the utmost importance for the government is to initiate tough action by law enforcement agencies to arrest the rising crime rate.
There is no denying that the government remains busy setting the stage for the national elections. But this is no excuse for neglecting the law and order. The law enforcement agencies need to do their work with utmost efficiency to improve the law and order.
The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) which scored well, in the past, against serious crimes, has been performing not up to the mark for quite some time. So, RAB should be activated to do its work efficiently. The highest authority of the government should direct the law enforcement agencies to prevent the reentry of terror dons into the country to re-establish their crime zones. They should be nabbed without wasting time. This is very important for the smooth holding of polls and leave a relatively better law and order for the next government.