We failed to prevent mob justice from being in the interim government

BD Digest Report

Former Law, Judicial and Parliamentary Affairs Advisor Professor Asif Nazrul has admitted that the interim government failed to show enough determination to strictly suppress the ongoing incidents of ‘mob justice’ or mass beatings in the country. In a recent interview with BBC Bangla, he frankly admitted this failure.

Asif Nazrul said, “We have failed to show the kind of toughness or firmness that we needed to show in preventing mob justice.”

He said that it was challenging to bring the situation under control initially due to the morale of the police force being broken after the mass uprising in July-August and administrative chaos. Condemning the incidents of beatings in various places of the country including Dhaka and Jahangirnagar Universities, he said that such incidents have deeply hurt and embarrassed the government. The government in no way supports taking the law into its own hands. The advisor further said that the process of identifying those involved in mob justice and bringing them under the law has begun. The current government will take a stricter stance to prevent such incidents from recurring in the future and is making every effort to normalize the law and order situation by reorganizing the police force. Earlier, after a young man named Tofazzal Hossain was beaten to death at Dhaka University, there was intense criticism of mob justice across the country. In that context, this former advisor, one of the most influential in the government, publicly highlighted his and the administration’s limitations.