Mob violence appears to show no let-up, suggesting a poor law and order. Such incidents resulting in casualties and injuries have continued to make the headlines almost every day. On April 10, at least three people died by mob beating and a few were wounded in the country. A rickshaw-puller was beaten to death in Kushtia on theft suspicion while a leader of the Juba League, the youth wing of the Awami League, was hacked to death at Sitakunda, Chattogram. In another incident that day, a young man was killed and three others injured as a group of unnamed assailants fired at them at Rangunia, Chattogram. On April 9, two people were killed on robbery suspicion in a mob beating in the Sylheti Bazar area of Kamrangirchar in Dhaka. Rights group Ain O Salish Kendra says that 27 people were beaten to death in January-February. The surge in mob violence, especially after the August 2024 political changeover, is believed to have been caused by weak law enforcement following the political turmoil that country has faced.
After the fall of the autocratic Awami League regime on August 5, 2024, the rule of law collapsed to an alarming extent as there was no government for a few days and the law enforcement agencies were also largely inactive. Even now, the law enforcement agencies, especially the police, appear not to have completely recovered their morale. Such a situation has, as experts and criminologists say, led to the surge in mob violence. Media reports and analyses show that while a large part of the mob violence was politically motivated, there have been many incidents that had no political connection. Mob violence has, in fact, remained a cause for concern as lynching has worryingly continued over the years. Rights organisation Odhikar reports that at least 1,164 people died in 2009鈥�2019 as people took the law into their own hands. Unabated lynching suggests the failure of the authorities to adequately address the issue and the most effective way to stop lynching is to establish the rule of law and ensure justice in every such incident. Legal experts and rights activists have repeatedly pointed out the connection between lynching and the absence of the rule of law, the culture of impunity and the improper justice system where killers and wrongdoers can evade punishment.
The authorities should, therefore, address law enforcement issues by tying up all loose ends but in keeping with due process and investigate each incident of lynching to bring perpetrators to justice to end the culture that is an affront to the rule of law and justice.
