The Saga of a Self-Destructive Society

Photos: Star File

It was just another afternoon for Nusrat and Alvi. After a busy day at school and then spending hours with their tutor, they wanted to take some rest and as usual, their mother lulled them to sleep. However, after several minutes, someone entered their room. With a piece of cloth, that person strangled Nusrat. As Nusrat resisted, the assailant pushed the fourteen year old girl to the floor from the bed. Being overpowered, Nusrat succumbed and was slowly asphyxiated to death. For sleeping Alvi, Nusrat's eight year old brother, the assailant did not have to struggle much. Alvi was also strangulated and killed in cold blood. The killer was their own mother.

When their mother confessed to RAB officials that she had killed her own children as she used to feel frustrated and insecure of their future, everyone was shell shocked.

It is certain that a mother killing her own children is quite uncommon, but in Bangladesh killing of innocent, minor aged children has become terrifyingly frequent. Just months before this tragic incident, four children were strangled to death as a result of a family feud over village leadership. In July 2015, Rajon, a ten year old boy, was beaten to death for a trifling issue. The criminals who killed Rajon filmed the murder and posted the video on social media.

That gruesome murder caused widespread outrage in the country; however, the list of the victims did not end here. A month later, on August 5, 2015, Rakib, a ten year old boy was inhumanly tortured and killed by pumping air into his body. Just a day after Rakib's murder, a Madrassa student named Rabiul Awal was beaten to death as he was suspected of stealing fish. And the list stained with the blood of innocent children is gets longer and longer

According to Bangladesh Shishu Adhikar Forum, a child rights organisation, 261 children have been murdered in the ten months from January to October, 2015 and in 2014, 292 children have been murdered in Bangladesh.

Nusrat and her brother Alvi.

Psychologists and sociologists have focused on the issue of disparity between economic aspiration and real-life hurdles among the people of our society. Besides, they have also identified that absence of ethics, mass unemployment, falling human values and rise of cruel attitudes in the society are some of the key reasons behind these heinous crimes.

However, a report of BSAF suggests another significant and specific reason of increasing these crimes against children. According to the BSAF report, 500 cases of child murders from the last four years are still waiting to be investigated and solved. The indifference of the law enforcers about crimes against children was also evident in the recent incidents. One of the murderers of Rajon flew to Saudi Arabia safely, where he was found and caught by other Bangladeshi workers. In the 4-children murder case, the officer in charge of the local police station and the investigation officer did not pay heed to the parents of the children when they informed the police about them missing. 

We often see news about Bangladesh being one of the most peaceful countries of South Asia, one of the happiest countries of the world. However the fact is that the number of murdered children in Bangladesh is rising every year and the ways of torturing children is becoming worse which gives us the ominous sign of unrest, unhappy and self-destructive society. When we see how inhumanely children are being treated in Bangladesh, how they are being killed and tortured, our hopes and aspirations about the nation's future get thwarted.