Law and order

The Operation Clean Heart witnessed a dramatic reduction in the instances of such crimes. But that was an emergency measure to put out of circulation the top terrors and their henchmen. As a democratic nation, we want the institutions of our law enforcement agencies to come of age and adapt their skill to meet the challenges posed by the criminals. Military forces can not -- and shall not -- be brought out of barracks time and again to fight criminals and hoodlums.

We also want our political leaders to help police in reining in criminal activities by being non-partisan in matters of criminality by their stooges. Despite repeated assurances from both the major political parties, the criminals with political identity still roam at large under the patronage of our political leaders.

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We also haven't seen the implementation of a joint commitment made by the secretary generals of the AL and BNP-- in the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), The Daily Star and Prothom Alo sponsored roundtable a few weeks ago-- whereupon both the leaders made a public assurance not to shelter criminals expelled from one party into the other.

Our leaders must remember that this aggravation in the instances of criminality is creating a sense of social anarchy; dampening the confidence of the people on the governability of the leadership in power; dissuading people from conducting day to day businesses and personal activities; and tarnishing the image of the nation to the prospective foreign investors willing to invest their hard earned money in the economy.

We urge all concerned -- police, politicians and the bureaucrats -- to embrace the problem of this exacerbation in the law and order situation more seriously. For, history testifies that our quest for establishing a society on the foundation of democratic values faced major obstacles in the past when the law and order situation nose dived to the point of no return.