THE attack on the New Market police station by activists of the Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, the student wing of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, to snatch a detained leader is alarming and deplorable. About 50–100 people attacked the station house about 4:10 am with brick chips, iron rods and hockey sticks after the police had brought a central joint general secretary of the organisation to the police station after his arrest. The incident left at least five police personnel — the New Market zone assistant commissioner, Dhanmondi East police outpost in-charge, and two sub-inspectors and a constable of the New Market police station — injured. The snatch attempt, however, failed and the police arrested six people. The police earlier arrested the JCD leader in a case filed over hacking traders in front of a shopping mall on the Elephant Road in Dhaka at night on January 10. The investigation officer of the case says that the JCD leader was not named in the case, which named 11 people, but police investigation found evidence of his involvement in the incident.
The Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal is reported to have expelled the leader. This is assuring but not enough as expelled errant activists of the organisation are usually taken back in the fold as it happened on many occasions earlier. What is unfortunate is that after the fall of the autocratic Awami League regime, when its wings, especially student and youth wings, engaged in all sorts of crimes and eventually earned a bad name and enraged the nation, it was expected that the political parties would learn their lessons and would avoid following in the footsteps of the Awami League and its wings, but signs of a similar frame of mind are evident in the activities of some activities of the Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal and other BNP wings and activists of other political parties. It appears that the errant activists of the BNP and other political parties are leaping fast to fill in the vacuum in the culture of extortion and other crimes, that too, violating the orders of the party top brass. Activists of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and other political parties have already made the headlines for extortion. In some cases, extortion happened in the names of student activists of the July uprising.
The law enforcers must bring all those involved in the attack on the police station to justice. The law enforcers should also go tough to stop the re-emergence of the gang culture and the menace of extortion. The political parties, especially the BNP, also need to do better than issuing statements and warnings and expelling their errant activists after they commit crimes. They should fix the loopholes and attend to organisational issues so that none of them can exploit their organisational position to abuse power.