Bachchu murder failure of governance

The killing appears to be yet another political murder of an opposition party leader. Certainly that is how it will be perceived and has been perceived by the general public, and with good reason. Starting with the murder of Ahsanullah Master over a year ago we have now seen repeated attacks on the AL leadership.

No one need be reminded of the August 21 grenade attack on the AL grand rally that killed over 20, including some senior AL leaders. Nor of the January killing of ex-finance minister Shah AMS Kibria. And now this. Who can be faulted for assuming that the murder had a political dimension and that it was another effort targeted squarely at the AL leadership?

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This latest murder is conclusive evidence of failure of governance. Political murders do not take place in well governed nations. The implications of this latest killing are many.

The first is that relations between the government and the opposition seem to have gone beyond the point of redemption. The conflict has reached unprecedented heights, and grave damage has been done to the prospect of any kind of political solution to the nation's problems.

The next implication is that confidence in the system is eroded not only because of the government's failure to protect opposition political leaders, but also by the fact that its investigations into the previous murders have been unconvincing, opaque, and largely fruitless. Unless the government changes its approach, there will be no rapprochement with the opposition, and the people will find it difficult to trust them either.

Lastly, the image of the country abroad has once again taken a serious body blow.

It must be said that jumping to the conclusion that the government is directly to blame is unhelpful to the investigation and may lead the public to believe that attempt is being made to take political advantage of a tragic event. Nor are hartals a good way of expressing legitimate outrage. A more productive approach for the opposition would be to spearhead a broad-based campaign to insist on a true investigation.

But, ultimately, the ball is in the government court. It must take responsibility for keeping the opposition leaders safe and sound. It must now leave no stone unturned in bringing the killers to book. Anything less can legitimately be construed as a colossal failure on the part of the government.