Editorial
Is saying sorry enough?
RAB personnel need psychological counseling
We have learnt through the media that the Rapid Action Battalion has offered an unqualified apology to the VC of Dhaka University for the unwarranted behaviour of some of its members who recently beat up a teacher of the university and caused him bodily injury. And the reason for the assault on the teacher was reportedly his asking the driver of the RAB vehicle to remove it from where it was parked in front of the latter's house, to clear the traffic congestion that the parked vehicle had created. The question is, is expressing regret enough?
It is an unpleasant truth that there is by and large a general disregard in the law enforcing agencies of the ordinary man's rights. And their overbearing attitude has reached such an intolerable level that one wonders how such an imperious attitude has come to be ingrained in the mind of a state agency whose primary responsibility is to protect and serve the people. It is perhaps because the victim of RAB's highhandedness in this instance was a university teacher that we have come to know of the matter. What if the victim had been an ordinary person? And such incidents of display of RAB's arrogance of power, we dare say, are not exceptions.
We feel that there must be more to it than just saying sorry. The elite force which we understand is manned by personnel selected specially from all the services as well as other law enforcing agencies must be made to understand that they are there not to inculcate fear in the minds of the people but the crooks, villains and felons. Regrettably, it is their demeanour that projects them as being generally overbearing and unfriendly to the public.
The matter involves more than merely punishing an individual. It is a matter of imparting not only appropriate professional training but also proper psychological orientation of the special forces personnel, particularly those that have to deal with the man in the streets on a daily basis. The agencies should be trained to deal with the people not as their masters but as friends otherwise such incidents will continue to be repeated.
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