It Is exactly 351 days today that Yasmin was gangraped by police elements and murdered. The northern districts, indeed the whole of our nation, rose as one man against that atrocity. Dinajpur was electrified and went into a sustained movement that drew the sympathy of our entire population to Yasmin and earned for the town a heroic image. The outraged nation started keeping the vigil lest the process of just retribution gets stuck. But to little avail.

There was much in the matter to suspect that the then government was not keen enough to punish the criminals — which was inconceivable. Their open partisan position against Yasmin and all activists protesting the police brutality could well have contributed to the unpardonable delay in the progress of the case. More than two months of this caretaker government has resulted positively in the charge-sheeting of the ac-c used. But the exclusion from the accused list of the doctor who gave the first and totally fabricated autopsy report was proof enough that conspiracy within the services to compromise the case was going on as strongly as ever.

We thank the Sammilita Nari Samaj for calling attention of the society to the weird and somnambulist way the case has been moving. The organisation, consisting of leading women of our isociety, has constantly been pursuing the case from its beginning. And now, exasperated, they Dave appealed to society. It was expected that the n atlon-shaking explosion of protest following Yasmin murder would work as a positive inhibitor fo r all of those in the police harbouring funny ideas about vulnerable young girls. That expecta-tio n failed to materialise and rape cases proliferate d.

The Yasmin case is very much a test of governance. A government, any government, that falls to respond to it in the manner required by dictates of Justice and humanity and society would be failing the nation and proving its absolute unworthiness to govern.