The alarming wave of violence pertaining to land grabs sweeping across Dhaka over recent days marks a dangerous collapse of civil order that must be met with uncompromising force from our authorities concerned.
That within three days, four separate properties across the capital -- Radda clinic in Mirpur, a housing compound in Mohammadpur, a residential building in Adabor, and a creative studio at ECB Chattar -- were targeted by organized, armed mobs shows just how dire the state of law and order is currently in the country.
How is it that hundreds of hired goons, wielding guns, machetes, and heavy machinery, can arrive in trucks to intimidate residents, vandalize structures, and seize land? This is no longer merely a series of civil property disputes but brazen gang violence, and it must end immediately.
Whatever political realignments have taken place since August 2024, the fundamental premise of a law-governed society remains unchanged: Legal ownership and possession must be determined exclusively through the judiciary and not through mob mobilization. This should not be a complex matter to grasp.
We must once again question our law enforcement agencies and their utter failure in preventing attacks of such massive scale. While recent arrests and stern promises from top police officials are at least a step in the right direction, words alone will not reassure a terrified citizenry.
We need the state to institute an absolute, zero-tolerance policy against organized land grabbing. Law enforcement must hunt down, arrest, and prosecute not only the hired foot soldiers, but crucially the ones calling the shots and orchestrating these operations.
There is simply no room for error on the part of our law enforcement, who must become more effective, not just at apprehending these criminals but also gathering intelligence to prevent such attacks.
If the state fails to crush this emerging apparatus of mob intimidation with unyielding resolve, it surrenders the capital to anarchy, and undermines any development ambitions we have. We cannot allow that to happen.
