The repeated incidents of lynching and their ferocity are increasingly causing concern among lawmen, psychologists and sociologists who believe people are taking law into their own hands because their confidence in the law enforcement agencies and justice delivery system is waning fast.
The police were recording cases on some of the crimes as well as incidents of mob justice. But such cases make little progress due to lack of investigation which largely contributes to people’s eroding confidence in law enforcement agencies, they said.
As many as 126 people were lynched in the county in first 11 months of this year, according to rights groups.
‘People take law into their own hands when they lose confidence in the law enforcement agencies and the primary responsibility lies with the agencies simply because they have failed to enforce laws,’ professor Mokaddem Hossain of sociology department at Dhaka University told New Age.
‘The number of different types of crime has increased alarmingly in recent times. People are regularly becoming victim of snatchings, robberies and others types of crimes which make people helpless and often desperate. As a result they turn cruel on crime suspects,’ he said.
Release of crime suspects from custodies on different grounds also prompts people to take law into their own hands, he said.
‘People become ruthless when they catch a crime suspect as they believe the police would set free the suspect for bribe,’ he said.
According to human rights watchdog Odhikar, 119 people were killed in mob beating in January-September 2010.
In the latest such incident, a mob beat two people to death at the city’s Dakkin Keraniganj on Friday on suspicion they were robbers.
The families of the two victims, however, said that they had gone there to find out a lost truck which was stolen a few days back from Uttarkhan of the capital.
Hasina Begum, a resident of the city’s Uttarkhan area and widow of Arzu Miah, who was killed in the Dakkin Keraniganj mob beating, alleged that her husband was lynched without reason.
She said Arzu was a transport worker and that he along with some other workers had gone to Palashpur ferryghat area near Abdullahpur of Keraniganj in search of a truck that was stolen from Uattarkhan some days back.
She demanded exemplary punishment to those who had killed her husband.
Arzu’s younger brother Rajab Ali said that earlier his brother and others had recovered a stolen truck from Dakkin Keraniganj area. ‘My brothers Ambar Ali, driver of the truck, and Arzu went there at night on information that a gang had kept the truck there after stealing it from Uttarkhan,’ he said.
Ambar Ali had sustained grievous injuries in the Keraniganj mob beating and is still undergoing treatment at Dhaka Medical College Hospital, Rajab said.
He alleged that an organised gang of truck lifters had killed his brother in a planned manner.
He also said that they had filed a case in this regard.
On November 5, five people were killed and another injured by a mob at Habibnagar neighbourhood of Kadamtali in the capital.
But after the incident, police had arrested the injured person and filed three cases against him. In one of the cases, some unnamed persons were accused of the killings, but there was no progress in the investigation.
Kadamtali police officer-in-charge Ayubur Rahman told New Age that they were investigating the cases but could not identify the persons who had lynched the five men.
Dhaka University’s clinical psychology department chairman Kamal Uddin Ahmed Chowdhury said incidents of spot killing of crime suspects by frenzied mobs were taking place repeatedly as the people had no confidence in the law enforcing agencies.
People beat the crime suspects to death as they are completely disappointed at the role of law enforcing agencies in dealing with crimes like robbery, burglary and snatching, he said.
He said incidents of lynching would not take place if the authorities can bring the criminals to justice.
Inspector general of police Hasan Mahmud Khandaker told New Age that lynching could be termed extrajudicial killing.
‘People cannot take the law into their own hands. We will investigate all the killings by mobs and bring the persons responsible to justice,’ he said.
He also said that if any loophole was found in the investigation of the incidents of lynching, the police officers concerned would face departmental action.
Professor Mokaddem suggested formation of a special squad to curb crimes like mugging, robbery, burglary etc and said strong political will was important for ensuring security of the people.
