Opinion

Scaring away the Young Folk?

Elita Karim
Photo: Kazi Tahsin Agaz Apurbo

A snapshot of 16-year-old Milon is captured on the cell phone camera, slightly vague, not sure if his face portrays pain, exhaustion, confusion or an urge to let the world around him know that he had done no wrong, to stop hitting him and at least listen to what he has to say. The video of the mob beating to death a wide-eyed-teenager caused an outrage all over the country when a private news channel on television recently broadcasted exclusive video shots of Milon being beaten up by a mob in Noakhali, claiming him to be a robber. Latest reports say that a few more young people were beaten up by the mob in the early hours of the same day in Noakhali, suspecting them to be robbers.

This incident happened a few weeks after six youths were beaten to death in Amin Bazaar, suspected of being robbers, once again. In all these cases, the police seemed to have played a very significant role in encouraging the mob to beat up the boys to death, neither moving a finger to protect the boys or to stop the mob from taking the law in their own hands.

Soon enough, these incidents will become mere news items, and the visuals and prints will probably disappear with time. However, these incidents also prove that there are many in this country who are in denial, who refuse to accept the fact that the youth can do something good for the country if pointed to the right direction, if provided with some guidance and if promised rewards for hard work instead of revealing ways of shortcuts to achieve their goals.

Trying to figure out the mind-boggling ways of society.

Why is it that certain sections in society do not take very well to teenagers in our country? In fact, Milon was held and given to the police, simply because he was waiting to talk to his cousin next to her school. Because he was not a student there and was doing nothing but loitering around, he was probably suspected of being another 'eve-teaser' or maybe one of those young boys, going around aimlessly about town. However, when his cousin was brought before him, she had recognised him and had confirmed Milon's earlier facts. Did Milon waiting to talk to his young cousin spark off certain signals of 'un-social activities between young lovers' inside the elderly bystanders, which made them call the police and hand him over? Why was he arrested in the first place? What did the police have against Milon? Why did they have to throw him into the streets for the angry mob to kill him?

It is high time that the authorities do something about educating the people in this country in terms of taking the law into their hands, corruption, misusing power and of course building an attitude to help young people become global citizens instead of shunning them away and isolating them. Otherwise, it won't be long before the law makers scare away all the young people to countries abroad, where they will be appreciated and given opportunities to live a full-fledged life.