Editorial
Six young men and a mob
Take swift action against the killers
The death of six young men at the hands of a mob in Aminbazar on Monday reflects an increasingly deeper malaise eating away at the fundamentals of our society. With more than seventy people lynched by mobs in the past six months, one does not need much wisdom to understand the extent to which the rule of law is surely and steadily being pushed to the fringes and replaced by a disturbing tendency on the part of individuals and groups to take the law in their own hands. In clear terms, where there must be an effective application of the law, we note with dismay the rise of lynch mobs ready to strike further at the roots of civilised behaviour.
Obviously, one cannot quite dismiss the public perception that people by and large have been losing confidence in the ability of the police or, more specifically, the administration to ensure law and order through handling crime efficiently. There is the inescapable feeling that corruption in the form of a nexus between the police and criminals has undermined the rule of law. And yet there can be no justification for what has happened in Aminbazar. Both the police and local residents have loudly proclaimed that the murdered men were robbers. That is absurdity taken to extremes. In the first place, the mob paid no heed to the young men's protestations about their identities. In the second, whether or not they were robbers or innocent youths out to seek pleasure in the nocturnal hours, it was criminality itself to have them lynched and then seek to justify the act. Why in the first place those young men who were students not taken into custody instead of being allowed to be beaten to death? Investigations that have been ordered must not be perfunctory but should mean business.
We are in full agreement with those who believe that a failure to prosecute earlier perpetrators of mob violence has encouraged others to commit similar criminal acts. Such indifference must stop here and now. Swift, harsh action must now be taken against those responsible for the killings in Aminbazar. Unless that is done, there is the danger that the outrage will be replicated elsewhere. The state will then be in free fall and citizens will feel increasingly insecure. That must not come to pass under any circumstances.
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