Vandalising of monuments

In the past many years, grievous assaults have been made on the nationalistic spirit of the country. Many of these attacks have come in the form of a desecration and vandalizing of monuments honouring the martyrs of the Language Movement as well as the War of Liberation. This year too, on the eve of Ekushey, vandals in Kushtia's Kumarkhali upazila thought little of destroying the shaheed minar set up on the premises of the century-old Jodubaira High School.
Going by the history of the monument, which was built as long ago as 1968, it has come under assault twice. The first time was in 1971, when the local collaborators of the Pakistan army destroyed it. The second time was, of course, on Thursday. Only a month ago, as the caption in the front page picture of the vandalized monument notes, another shaheed minar was attacked in the same upazila.
All of this is a matter of serious concern, not only because these monuments happen to fall under the same upazila but also because shaheed minars have been under assault elsewhere in the country. The simple question before us is: where do these anti-national elements get the courage to indulge in such reprehensible acts? There is another: how is it that the local authorities are generally unable to track down these successors of the 1971 generation of Pakistani collaborators and bring them to book?
Zero tolerance is the need here. No one and nothing that goes against our nationalistic spirit must be allowed to happen. Such impunity is outrageous and must be stopped ruthlessly.