Case of a teen-aged student arrested amid political turmoil

Jail

A largely circulated Bangla daily has reported the sad plight of a father who came to the Rajshahi Central Jail gate the other day with papers to plead for his 17-year old son who has been arrested in connection with the opposition boycott of election and the observance of intermittent blockade programmes across the country. He came to see his ward and told the people present there, his son was not involved in any subversive activity. He wants his son’s student life is not spoiled.

We don’t know if the words of the ill-fated father have reached the officials concerned in the jail or the police station which has forwarded the teen-ager, who as per the law is still a minor, to the jail. The arrest and the sending of the boy into the crammed jail which according to reports have exhausted its capacity to hold inmates are enough to cause trauma in his tender mind which would take time to heal.

The police administration should look into the matter and make sure that arrests are not indiscriminate and the lawful power of coercion given to them to maintain peace and harmony is the society is not used unlawfully. Because such cases of use of force may in turn erode the people’s respect for the law.

People in the upper echelon of the police and the prison administration should immediately look into the matter, because any such mistake can harm the promising life of a student in the bud and in turn ruin a family which is eager to see its offspring grow up as educated and skilled people and become future bread earners. That police the is working overtime is no excuse for failure to scrutinise cases of arrest that affects lives of people and in turn livelihoods of their families.