Editorial
Car set ablaze at DU
Let's put a stop to street justice
The increasing incidence of mobs meting out street justice is a disturbing symptom of the corrosion of respect for the rule of law in the country. In the latest such incident, Dhaka University students set fire to a car and severely beat up its driver after he had hit a rickshaw causing minor injuries to one of its passengers.There was no suggestion that the driver had been driving recklessly or that he had attempted to flee the scene or in any way acted inappropriately. Nor was the accident victim seriously hurt, although the young man who was driving the car has been admitted to DCMH with severe injuries from the beating. In any event, even had the driver been guilty of recklessness or acted in a high-handed or arrogant manner, there cannot be any justification for bystanders to beat him up and set fire to his car. Matters such as these can be dealt with perfectly well in a court of law and the fact that the mob took the law into its own hands merely goes to show how far the law and order situation has deteriorated. That the vigilantes were DU students was more disquieting still, and it can sadly come as a surprise that the mob's ring-leader was identified by the police as a JCD student leader. The message sent by such vigilante action is that justice is not dispensed by a court of law but by whoever has the strength to mete it out, and that those who arrogate to themselves the duty of enforcing street justice are above the law. The first step to improving the law and order situation is to make clear that none is above the law or can take the law into his own hands. Those responsible must be brought to book.
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