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Pyromaniac's delight!

Akhtar Shah
GUY Fawkes and his family were Protestants. His widowed mother married a Catholic who influenced his convictions. He went to Europe and fought for the Catholic cause. He returned and hatched a plot to blow up the English king, which was foiled by the King's spymaster. In Britain, on Novembers every year, an effigy of Guy is placed on a bonfire and lit to commemorate the failure of the plot.
In Bangladesh, fires are being lit during hartals, not in commemoration but as a crime against humanity! As recently as the '90s, criminal political elements used to set fire to inanimate objects to show their anger and power of protestation. The mantra appears to be, the fiercer the force of destruction the more powerful the message is to the party in power.
Surprisingly, vast numbers of people seem to have become sanitised to the pain and suffering of the victims. The media, party in power, diplomats and civil society have been vocal but thus far have been unable to stop or reduce this repugnant behaviour of the unsavoury political elements. There has been not an ounce of contrition, apology or denouncement by any political or religious party.
This "fun" with fire has been extended to murdering humans now. Incendiary devices are thrown into vehicles full of people before they are able to get out of harm's way, and the tally of dead and injured keeps rising each day.
Some elements in the opposition ratchet up their evil game of 'fireworks' every time the party in power inches forward with the national elections. The government seems to let the opposition carry on with this wanton warfare. By AL reckoning, BNP is losing ground with the electorate because of its destructive activities.
This irresponsible stance of the government with an autocratic bend might lead to serious harm in the long term. During the Bali conference, Karl De Gucht of EH warned of withdrawal of GSP facility in the absence of improvement in labour standards in the factories.
The people in the government are either helping by their inaction or creating an environment where a large, fully compliant factory employing 55 thousand people may be destroyed within minutes by a handful of people!
Meanwhile, BNP is "playing with fire" and perhaps thinking that the end justifies means. This thought process could not be more delusional. Their so called ' strategy' is hopeless, desperate, endless fainthearted capitulation to mindless barbarism. These hideous acts will come back to haunt them. Unfortunately, it's the ordinary citizens who will pay the ultimate price.
The writer is a British entrepreneur of Bangladeshi origin.
E-mail: aban58@hotmail.com