Yet another bomb blast!

We have written ad nauseum about the need to address the cases of explosions in a forthright and earnest manner. Only the other day in this column, we expressed our concern that, failure to bring to a positive conclusion the investigations regarding sensational cases, would provide a fillip to the perpetrators, to continue with their anti-state and anti-people activities.

Unfortunately investigations of none of the bomb blast cases have been concluded as yet. More often, these have been mired in political blame game and attempted slant to implicate the opposition. Yet again we see the usual blame game. A political party has already blamed another for perpetrating the incident in Dirai. This is another factor that creates impediments to proper, objective investigations of important cases, such as this.

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For over a decade now we have been pre-occupied with the problem of proliferation of small arms in Bangladesh. In the process, we have overlooked the very serious issue of indigenous explosive devices (IED) that have been so frequently used over several years, with devastating effects. The casualty statistics at a glance shows us that more lives have been lost due to this device than to the conventional small arms and light weapons.

Admittedly, IEDs are easy to put together and transported without difficulty from place to place. They can also be moved about in a knocked down condition and assembled at short notice. Some crude devices can also be put together without much technical know-how. All these beg the question of professional investigation of previous cases, constant surveillance over suspected groups as well as maintaining a data base to conduct productive investigations.

It is time the government addressed the issue of IEDs seriously. It is imperative to bring the culprits and perpetrators of these abhorrent acts to book. We are sure that professionalism in investigations is bound to lead to arrests.

But above all, to bear any fruit, investigations must steer clear of any political interference.