THE murder of Nishat Banu, 46, in her own house at Segunbagicha Tuesday night provides a poignant pointer on how insecure and unsafe life has become in the capital, as elsewhere in the country. According to a report published in New Age on Friday, quoting her mother, who was in the other room, her hands and legs tied, when Nishat was killed, three young men entered their house, increased the volume of the television, tied the two women up and gagged them, took Nishat to another room and strangled her. Then, they calmly took out some mango and litchi from the refrigerator, ate them, and went away, about six hours after they had entered the house. For the next 36 hours or so, the old woman tried to untie herself as her daughter’s dead body decomposed. Finally, early Thursday morning, she broke free and screamed for help.
Whatever the motive behind the murder — the police suspect it to be land dispute, the ease with each the killers entered the victim’s house and the nonchalance that they displayed throughout would surely make one question the repeated claims by the Awami League-led government of marked improvement in law and order since it came to power in January 2009. Only the other day, a young woman was reportedly gang-raped and killed before her body was chopped into pieces and some of the body parts were flushed down the commode. In fact, hardly a day goes by without at least one murder report, either in the electronic or the print media. Regrettably, however, while the home minister so enthusiastically boast the success of the law enforcement agencies, even some of the high-profile cases remain unresolved for days, weeks, months and even years. A glaring example in this regard is the murder of the journalist couple Sagar Sarowar and Meherun Runi.
The incumbents need to realise that their repeated claims hardly allay the fears of the people when such killings continue with increasing frequency and ferocity. Most importantly, the failure of the law enforcement agencies to produce any tangible results in the fight against crime could only embolden the criminals. Hence, it is time that the government stepped out of its state of denial and made the law enforcement agencies effectively do what they are supposed to
do — fight crime and catch criminals.