The mastans are once again at it. No. this is not one of their usual crimes making news in their myriad forms of cruelty and defiance of the law and order every day. It is iheir muscle flexing between two groups over the control of a city zone. To establish their unchallenged domination, the musclemen fought in Sabujbagh. Lalbagh. and various other places of the city. Khilgaon and ‘Mohakhali have been the recent addition to this mafia-fashion gun battle and indiscriminate use of other lethal weapons including cocktails of enough fire power. In the recent two such incidents, casualty list includes a woman and a young man — all of whom are claimed to be pedestrians — besides the feuding party members. On Friday’s Incident, an SSC examinee — also a pedestrian — was hit by a stray bullet during the clash between two groups of the bullies, again in Khilgaon.

Surprisingly, the reports carried in the newspapers are categorical that the concerned thanas were unaware of the clashes that continued for several hours. Now this appears to be a bit mysterious. If the mastans can fight for hours without the knowledge of the local thana, no doubt something somewhere has gone wrong. Sure enough, when the mastans commit a crime, they at least try to do • it as secretly as possible and without risking their own safety. Of course, the dare-devil types of them disdainfully go on doing their business as if they alone can decide the fate of the innocent people within the spheres of their influence.

Yet this is not the most open challenge the antisocial elements throw at the country’s law and order situation. But when they unleash their frenzy in a bld to establish their supremacy over their opponents. they give a damn to the law enforcing agency. And If the law enforcers cannot take them at their heinous act, these elements only have their own way in a more ruthless manner. The way they are flexing their illegal muscle may soon cause to bring down the entire management of different ar- • eas in the city. Already, this is the most open kind of challenge the neo-mafiosi of Bangladesh are throwing at the administration. That their unrestrained rise can be traced back to the fact of this government's failure to tackle the problem is undeniable — the Anti-terrorism Act notwithstanding.

Today, people — both in villages and in towns or cities — are living in a kind of fear psychosis. Their rights as free citizens are being undermined by various agencies but by none so‘blatantly as the mastans. Society today lies sprawled at the mercy of these anti-social goons and the people suffering from such humiliation almost at every step cannot be expected to bring out the best in them. Deprived of security and shorn of dignity, these people are sure to be disgruntled and less co-operative with the administration that has failed to deliver what a government is expected to do.