It was a small news item with a devastating effect. Really a block-buster that would have hugely embarrassed any government in an effective parliament. It could have even blown the whistle on a government.

For. who ever heard of policemen taking to the street, damaging vehicles and disrupting highway traffic for full five hours? They did exactly all these at Gazipur on Sunday, angered by a mini-bus hitting police sub-inspector Altaf Hossain and wounding him. Imagine what would have happened if it were to prove fatal. The spot being the Police Line area was obviously a very unlikely place for the driver of a private vehicle to venture any laxity. So, it was Just an accident leaving everything in the power of the local police to seize the transport, catch its driver and book him.

On the contrary, the policemen filed out of the nearby barracks and went on a rampage like street urchins and mastans totally unmindful of the hat they were wearing as the custodian of law and order and of public property. What moral authority can they wield now in a reverse situation where they will have to control a certain crowd or a section of students taking law into their hands. We have been consistently averse to clannish mobilisation at the slightest hint of someone coming to harm within a fold and then taking it out on entirely off-the-mark targets: Such as public or private transports bringing the traffic to a complete standstill for hours on end. Frankly, there is more of paranoid showmanship about it than sincerity towards the victim. In the ultimate analysis, it means the failure of law enforcement.

As if that was not enough, the police are now on a law-breaking spree themselves. This is where the real danger lies. Who will the public turn to now? Surely not to such liveried mastans. What was the barrack police supervisor doing to control his men? The home ministry better look into the matter seriously fixing responsibility for the grave misconduct on the Srt of the lawmen. What kind of a training are

ey being imparted now-a-days that their professional motivation runs out under the slightest pressure?