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I have read the letter that recently appeared in your paper on police vigilance and I agree wholeheartedly with its writer.
The police are demonstrating their presence in Dhaka city and the same is too evident from their mounting of checkpoints, search of vehicles and even the bodies of their occupants. Needless to say, this is a response to citizens' bitter criticisms of the police these days that they are failing to rise to the law and order challenge.
But is it desirable that the police should rather go into cosmetic high- profile vigilance to impress people that they are doing a lot. People are no fools (as the writer of that letter pointed out) and in most cases they realise that such road blocks and car checks are unlikely to yield little or no results. On the contrary, the same would only warn the gangsters of police's vigilance and they would be using more clever and devious ways of transporting their wares without being caught. Even ordinarily, criminals do not move around or dispatch their arms and ammunition, spoils of crime, etc., by the formal routes. They send such stuff through clandestine ones.
Therefore, what is occurring in many cases in the name of police vigilance is the harassment of ordinary people. As it always happens, people are prone to asking why the people waste their energies on innocent people and do not use the same against the real criminals.
Frequently, police are seen these days stopping private cars indecently and asking their occupants to show the requisite papers needed for legitimately driving although private cars these days display the mandatory tax stamp and fitness stamps on their windshields. Cars without these stamps can be stopped. But what is the point of stopping private cars with these stamps in full display? Besides, private car owners are overwhelmingly found dutiful in renewing their car papers in time to avoid any hassle with the police. But their only reward in paying their dues to the government is such harassment. On the other hand, time-barred buses and trucks, which are often overloaded, are seem moving freely before the eyes of the police and these are hardly ever stopped. This is because they satisfy the rent-seeking instincts of some policemen.
Md. Ahsan
Dhanmandi,
Dhaka
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