Every murder, young and old, man or woman, is painful, and no one expects such incidents to occur. But unfortunately, we see these tragic incidents occurring frequently in the country. The incident of 13-year-old Ishayat Shahriar Apratim is no exception. He left his Cumilla home with an iPhone at around 2:30pm on Friday. His body was recovered from an isolated wooded area in the Sananda part of Lalmai Hill on Saturday afternoon. According to the police, Apratim was killed there for possessing the iPhone.
Whatever the reasons behind his murder, the harsh reality is he will never return to his beloved parents who have to pass their rest of life without their only son. Whenever we imagine that such incidents could have happened to our own children, it touches our heart. As Apratim's parents will miss him till their final days in this transitory world, everyone feels the insecurity of their children all the time. But question emerges as to whether such incidents stir the government as we parents are stirred. We don't think so. The government merely delivers its responsibility.
These criminal activities and deprivation in the society existed in the past and will continue in the future. But the government must have various programmes to reduce and bring these to a tolerable level
On the heels of such incidents, the government agencies carry out various activities including investigation. The agencies say this and that, no one will be spared and perpetrators will be brought to book. It has also been noticed the security agencies can change their versions, from whatever they earlier claimed. The home minister also proudly claimed the accused have been arrested within 12 hours. How quickly or whatever measures the government takes, unfortunately such incidents recur.
There is no respite of killing, murder, snatching, mugging, accidents and so on. But it does not seem these incidents touch the heart of the government as it touches the heart of Apatim's parents who lament everything has lost.
If these tragic incidents could have touched the heart of the government whose core responsibility is to ensure the security of the people, the measures would have been different. How will that measure be taken?
We notice inefficiency to the highest level at every tier of the government. When recently four people of a family were killed at their house in Rangpur, the police first made a statement over the murder, they later made another statement.
A school teacher fell victim to snatching at Manik Mia Avenue recently and she finally died. The security agencies first claimed that they arrested the accused, later they said the arrested persons are not the real perpetrators. This proves the sheer inefficiency of the security agencies.
Moreover, frequent recovery of bodies, suicidal incidents, accidents and road crashes must not be treated as mere accidents.
The government needs to delve deeper into the incidents. These incidents have link to unemployment, drug addiction, tensions, inequality and disparity. These criminal activities and deprivation in the society existed in the past and will continue in the future. But the government must have various programmes to reduce and bring these to the tolerable level. The government needs to involve people from all walks of life including teachers, civil society members, political leaders and community people to yield better result.
If the government does not take these matters into consideration and act accordingly, there is no hope, no aspirations.
#The writer is a journalist at Prothom Alo.
*The opinions expressed here are the author's own.