Editorial
A mind-boggling stalking incident
Failed law enforcement under microscope again
The tragic thing about a typical tale of stalking is when it leads to fatal consequences bursting out in the open. It would hit the news line and rudely shake public consciousness only after the victim has been attacked, injured, raped or killed. Or, when a teacher, a parent, or a guardian would be fatally injured or murdered while trying to resist the perpetrator.
Yet, it is usually set against a long-winded pattern of somnolence or inaction over a period of time presenting ample opportunity to intervene and freeze it on its track. Whereas drastic intervention at the appropriate time in the unfolding scenario could have averted dangers to the targeted girl, this is seldom done. Thus it festers with impunity feeding on impunity to assume a monstrous proportion.
What triggered us to reel off these thoughts is the latest incident centring around 20-year old Mita Dev who was stabbed in her face by a frenzied stalker at Gandaria in old Dhaka. It is the upshot of an unattended 18-month long obsessive chasing by a young man without any relief for the girl coming from any quarters.
Usually what fuels stalking is familial and community hesitancy to approach the issue head-long at the initial stages for fear of social stigma compounded by threats put out by the stalker to the family concerned. They balk at the thought of approaching police for redress and confine themselves within the limits of persuasion at the inter-family level. But given the unabated proliferation in the incidence of sexual harassment despite social outcries and stringent laws, perhaps we need an all-out strategy to combat the malady by nipping it in the bud.
Of course, promptly handing out severe punishment to the offender could prove to be a deterrent, but here too the rate of punitive action has been negligible to be of any impact. Usually those who leave the scene of crime bring to bear influences on a case to eluding the grip of law.
The local police need to be motivated and under instructions to take cognizance of rogues falling for girls, pestering and stalking them and try and dissuade them to make amends or face the full force of law. The community including the youthful students have to work as a bastion against the obsessive disease of sexual harassment. Respect for girls and women will have to be instilled in the minds of the students across the educational spectrum. This will have a salubrious effect on the entire society.
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