When negative news abounds, this tiding about police success is undoubtedly heartening. They took two suspects to custody and could reach the den of the criminals on the basis of their confessional statements.

That is precisely how the police are expected to work. But the fact remains that businessman Jamal Uddin Ahmed could not be rescued till yesterday, more than a month after his abduction. The police top brass raised the hopes of people by saying that they were on the verge of a breakthrough. They also hinted at gathering vital information about the kidnappers. But the hopes have been dashed.

So the police have a lot of work to do to prove themselves effective vis-a-vis the kidnappers. The first thing that they must ensure is thinking and acting ahead of the lawbreakers. A closer study of the recent incidents will surely reveal that intelligence failures are by and large responsible for the slow progress in resolving the cases. The criminals are equipped with modern communications gadgets and are in a position to gather information about the likely maneuvering of the police. The law enforcers seem to have been outwitted by the criminals.

The police are acting only after a crime is committed. It is not known why the surveillance teams of police fail so miserably to anticipate what criminals are going to do in some particular areas. For example, kidnapping at the port city is nothing new; yet the police are handling the situation in a routine manner having apparently learned little from past incidents.

There are other bottlenecks, too, which should not be overlooked. The marked tendency to play to the gallery with loud claims to progress in investigations and the wide publicity these receive through the media often proves counter-productive as the criminals are alerted thereby to go into hiding. This is something that all concerned would do well to bear in mind.