ATTACKS on the police and police stations in different parts of the country in the past few weeks suggest a worrying law and order situation. The attacks were perpetrated by activists of different political parties, including the ousted Awami League. In a recent incident, activists of the Awami League attacked a police vehicle at Sujanagar in Pabna on February 2 and snatched a detained Awami League leader accused in a case filed in connection with the attack on students in the July mass uprising. Eyewitnesses and the police say that a team of Sujanagar police arrested the fugitive Awami League leader, Abdul Wahab, but several hundred local Awami League activists gathered and forcibly snatched the accused from the police vehicle, leaving at least eight police members injured. A similar attack on the police was reported on the same day in Gopalganj, where Awami League activists attacked the police to snatch a detained activist of the party. They did not succeed in snatching the detained activist but left five police members injured and a police vehicle vandalised. Deplorable and alarming as they are, these incidents raise concern on a few counts.
The incidents show that the government has not been able to bring the perpetrators of the July massacre to justice, even though there are hundreds of videos and photographs of members of different Awami League fronts who killed and wounded students and people during the July uprising. The failure is particularly unacceptable as the interim government, which assumed office on August 8 after the fall of the authoritarian Awami League regime on August 5 amidst the mass uprising, repeatedly claims that it is committed to bringing the perpetrators to justice. The incidents of attacks on the police and police stations also show a fragile law and order and that the law enforcement agencies, which, for their complicity in the massacre during the July uprising, lost their moral strength, are yet to regain that strength and restore law and order. Attacks on the police and even police stations have also been perpetrated by activists of other political parties. Followers of a detained leader of the Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, the student wing of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, attacked the New Market police station on January 24 to snatch him. The incident left at least five police personnel injured. Similar incidents of attacks on the police were earlier reported in other parts of the country. All this paints a grim law and order situation and warrants early and effective steps.
While the law enforcers must detain the snatched accused and bring all those involved in the attacks to justice, the government must deliver on its commitment to bringing the perpetrators of the July massacre to justice. The government also needs to shore up the issues to improve law and order and bring back the law enforcement agencies in public trust.
