MAILBOX

Is anyone safe at the hands of a mad mob?

It shocked me to see the statistics of deaths in mob beatings over the last six years. According to the data of Ain O Shalish Kendra, at least 573 people have been killed by lynch mob beatings from 2013 to July 2019. Forty three innocent people have been killed by mob beatings till the end of July this year. That is horrible! Most of the incidents happened in the Dhaka division. Research has also shown that the frequency and number of the incidents tend to be higher in urban and densely populated areas. According to the research, a fear of vulnerability resulting from the absence of social justice turns a group of people into an agitated mob. Corruption and procrastination in the judicial and law enforcement agencies and organised propaganda campaigns by the miscreants are inciting people to take the law into their own hands. Trends of mob justice begin this way. I think that raising public awareness and enhancing public access to the law enforcement agencies and judicial proceedings are ways to get rid of such crimes.

Md. Tarek Aziz Bappi

University of Dhaka

Rumours everywhere

Presently "gujob" has become the ultimate trend and everyone's worst nightmare. This offsets other issues. This issue took shape from the student's movement back in 2018. When an individual doesn't know why they're doing something, or whether it is right or wrong, just going with the "mob mentality", it's very dangerous. A girl whose mother was lynched in broad daylight with scores of onlookers and filmers but no one to stop or tackle the situation will get to know in the future that her mother died because of a false charge. It's sad that society has come to such a low point. Things going viral on social media are also worsening the atmosphere. People don't have the basic judgement or sense that their spreading of fake news is ruining lives and ruining society. In 2019, when people are thinking about colonising Mars, Bangladesh is in bafflement over what is true and what is false. There are high chances certain political groups are taking advantage of it as different incidents are being reported from all over Bangladesh.

Rafid Alam