Editorial
Where it Has Come to
On what a precarious perch a Dhaka dweller finds himself today is brought home - once again but certainly with a greater force this time - by the death of LGRD Joint Secretary Nikunja Bihari Debnath in the hands of a few rogues. A martyrdom it has been at the altar of some muggers dehumanised enough to knife him to death just because he had no more than Tk 100 on his person. Even the revelation of his identity and his tendering of an apology to the ruffians for having 'so little money', as the surviving puller of the rickshaw he was riding was to recall, could not soften their hearts.
There is a character about the man that late Nikunja Bihari Debnath was, which is certainly worthy of emulation. What stand out as his sterling qualities are the simplicity in his life-style and his conscientiousness as a state functionary. As a joint secretary to the government he was entitled to a full-time use of an official car. But he had instructed his son from Chittagong not to drive his official car to the Kamalapur Railway Station to pick him up on his return after Eid holidays as he was thinking of riding home by a rickshaw.
How very conscientious he was to his official duties that he took the overnight train out from Chittagong just to reach Dhaka in time for office on the opening day after Eid. He sets another example there.
Our heart goes out in sympathy with his bereaved family and only if his death does not go in vain, in terms of concrete punitive and deterring actions, that the pervasive fear among people for their physical safety would be somewhat allayed.
Within a hundred yards of the place of occurrence there were two police vans and two posses of policemen, according to the report in our sister Bangla paper Prothom Alo. Where it has really come to that the presence or absence of policemen near the scene of an incident bears the same meaning to the criminals!
Let the government or the home ministry face the fact. Debnath's death cannot be categorised as an isolated incident, extricable from the unabated deterioration in the general law and order situation of the country. During Eid holidays there were six murders in Dhaka, two in Chittagong and three in Munshiganj. There were screaming headlines like 'dacoity in a retired secretary's house', 'Ittefaq journalist stabbed' and 'a computer engineer-cum-businessman killed'. What else does the government need to wake up?
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