126 people lynched in 2010 in Bangladesh

DHAKA - A total of 126 people have been lynched in Bangladesh this year, which indicates people are losing trust in the authorities’ capability to book law breakers, a media report said Saturday.

The repeated incidents of lynching and the attackers’ ferocity are causing concern among lawmen, psychologists and sociologists who believe people are taking law into their own hands because their confidence in law enforcement agencies and the justice delivery system is waning, the New Age said Saturday.

Police are concerned at the rising number of incidence of mob justice. Investigations in such cases make little progress due to lack of confidence in them shown by the people engaged in it.

According to human rights watchdog Odhikar, 119 people were killed in mob beating during January-September this year. Seven more were added to the toll in the last six weeks.

“People take law into their own hands when they lose confidence in the law enforcement agencies, and the primary responsibility lies with the agencies simply because they have failed to enforce laws,” Mokaddem Hossain, professor of sociology at Dhaka University, was quoted as saying.

“The number of different types of crime has increased alarmingly in recent times. People are regularly becoming victims of snatchings, robberies and other crimes which are making them helpless and often desperate. As a result, they turn cruel on crime suspects,” he said.

Release of crime suspects from custody on various grounds also prompts people to take law into their own hands. “People become ruthless when they catch a crime suspect as they believe the police would set free the suspect for bribe,” he said.

Inspector General of Police Hasan Mahmud Khandaker said lynching could be termed extra-judicial killing.

“People cannot take the law into their own hands. We will investigate all the killings by mobs and bring the persons responsible to justice,” he said.