Lawlessness appears to be taking increasingly newer forms in the country. And that is to be seen in the adoption of what one could call a culture of beating and humiliating people in public. The case of the way in which the young Rajon was beaten to death before a group of inactive witnesses remains fresh in our minds. There have been others who have been subjected to the same kind of humiliation. It is mind-boggling as to how some individuals can take the law in their own hands and commit criminal acts without any fear of the law.
Our attention has been drawn to the shameful manner in which a young woman employed at a tailoring shop was beaten up by her employer in public in Sylhet on Tuesday. The tailoring shop owner felt no embarrassment in humiliating her in the centre of town, images of which soon went viral. The question now is why this shop owner did what he did or how he came by so much boldness as to see nothing wrong in assaulting the woman, whose only fault was in asking him to clear the outstanding wages he owed her. There is a simple answer to that question: this hooligan happens to be the younger brother of the president of the Sylhet metropolitan unit of the Projonmo League, a body aligned to the ruling Awami League. The story, as we can see, is similar to a few others we have come across in recent times. One sad instance is the outrageous manner in which activists of the Chhatra League swooped on the teachers of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology recently when the latter were demonstrating against the continued stay in office of the vice chancellor of the university. As far as we understand, no action against the criminals involved in the incident at SUST has been taken. And such inaction, one can rightly conclude, only raises the level of impunity that men and women with mischief in their minds are regularly drawn to.
There must be strict and fast action against such individuals. The tailoring shop owner must not be permitted to go free, despite the assertion by the police that the man and his mauled employee have come to a negotiated settlement. That a settlement has been arrived at is good, but it still does not minimize the criminality of the tailoring shop owner. A good example should be made of him by the police. While on the subject, we feel that it is necessary to state that the job of the police is to investigate a crime more than to assist a criminal and his victim reach a settlement. In the present case, by letting the tailoring shop owner go free only because he has allegedly reached a deal with the woman he has beaten up, the police have demonstrated a clear absence of professionalism. That should not have been the case.
We conclude on a simple note: this growing culture of impunity must be rolled back if society is not to fall prey to the predatory instincts of the black sheep within its fold.