THE death of two passengers and injury to another after they had allegedly been tossed by muggers out of a commuter train at two locations in Mymensingh on Saturday night may well be yet another pointer to the sustained downslide in law and order across the country since the Awami League-led government assumed office in 2009. As New Age reported on Monday, quoting local people and the railway police, the incidents took place at around 10:30pm when the victims sought to put up resistance against the miscreants who started to mug passengers after the Jamalpur-bound train had passed the Gaffargaon station. Suffice it to say, mugging on passenger trains and muggers’ pushing passengers off moving trains have become a regular phenomenon, at least on this route. Regrettably, however, the authorities concerned have evidently turned a blind eye to this problem thus far.
In fact, the government appears to have remained indifferent to the overall safety and security of the people at large in the past four years or so. Worse still, the key functionaries of the government and the police administration have continued to deny the ground realities regarding law and order, although the law enforcement agencies, including the police, have not been able to contain the steep surge in crimes thus far. Not only that, reports have it that even some members of law enforcement agencies have engaged in various sorts of crime in. Overall, not only the rate but the ferocity of crime as well has increased substantially in recent times.
The government needs to realise that while the citizens are being cornered into a state of perpetual fear, with absolutely no security anywhere — public, or private — and the law enforcers are continuously failing to deliver on their stipulated duty, the former are becoming more at ease with taking the law into their own hands. All this is sure to cause society to plunge into utter lawlessness. It is also important to note that repeated criminal incidents, not to mention loss of lives, in passenger train may eventually encourage even regular passengers to opt for an alternative mode of transport, which would be detrimental to the Bangladesh Railway, already a losing concern for different reasons. It is, therefore, imperative that the government seriously address the issue without any delay.