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| Bangladesh |
| Mob misrule must not be allowed to stand |
| 2016-05-20 |
| [Dhaka Tribune] The law minister is right to describe last Friday’s mob attack on headmaster Shyamal Kanti Bhakta in Narayanganj as a punishable offence that must not be tolerated. It is disgraceful that a mob beat up the senior teacher and sought to humiliate him by publicly forcing him to do squats holding his ears. Although the education minister has apologised for the incident, later setting up an investigation, this is not enough. By their own accounts, the local MP -- in whose presence the attack was carried out -- and the local police did nothing to stop the mob or hold them to account after the incident. Moreover, the school management committee that instigated the attack and has reportedly been harassing the victim for months in order to replace him with a relative of the committee’s president, is still in office and has officially suspended the victim. Although those involved are making conflicting claims, there are clear indications that the headmaster is the victim of systematic harassment by a corrupt school committee that has turned on an individual for not giving in to their demands. To make matters worse, the committee orchestrated the public beating by making completely baseless accusations that the victim, a Hindu, had made "offensive comments" about Islam. It is doubly dangerous and deplorable that they cynically misused religion to incite communal hatred. The government must stand by the headteacher and uphold the law minister’s promise that those involved will be punished because no one can take the law into their own hands. There is no place for mob violence in Bangladesh. The Supreme Court has long since ruled on the illegality of arbitrary "village courts." All those responsible for mistreating the headteacher must be held to account. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 No. The reason to have strong rule of law is to prevent exactly this kind of mob lynching based on lies to benefit crony insiders. In this case, the Hindu school principal was abused for months to drive him out in favour of the school board president's relative. When that didn't work the Muslim mob was galvanized by a deliberate lie (and even if it were true, that's no excuse) about the Hindu insulting Islam, whatever that means. About as funny as making Jews scrub Nazi gutters with a toothbrush, and equally bad for the character of the watchers. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2016-05-20 14:33 |
| #1 Actually, it might be kind of fun to see that Schmo character from the story about GEN Boykin forced, er, strongly encouraged to do such a thing publicly for the amusement of the undergraduates. |
| Posted by: Cesare 2016-05-20 10:16 |