Partisan protection committees a prescription for disaster
The recent effort by the government and the opposition to create “protection committees” is an extremely bad idea, as it will only lead to increased polarisation and instability in society.
The people attacking law enforcers and minorities or torching trains and buses do not rise to the level of revolutionaries or Razakars that each side is making them out to be. They are simply common criminals and vandals. You do not need the spirit of '71 to face them, and they do not need protection from the “attacks” of the government or law enforcement. What the police need is good information from the public and the will to act on that information. Partisan political committees will do nothing more than create more incidents of violence and damage that the already burdened police will need to deal with.
Ideally, if protection of the communities was the real goal, local committees would be formed by the citizens of the towns, villages or neighbourhoods themselves, not the local party affiliates. They would be made up of non-partisans or members of different parties that can be trusted by the other committee members and the public to be responsible and accountable in helping to lead to the arrest of the offenders, regardless of who they may be, not protecting political allies. Their role would be to provide information to the authorities, not to act as vigilantes.
The lack of trust and respect between the different parties has not only led to this bad idea, but is the root of many of the problems facing Bangladesh today.
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