Four people were sentenced to death in Bangladesh last year for beating to death a 13-year-old boy accused of stealing a bicycle. Samiul Alam Rajon was tied to an electric pole and beaten up by a mob. The autopsy showed 64 different injuries inflicted on his person. Rajon was hit repeatedly with an iron rod, while he screamed: “Please don’t beat me in this way, I will die.” At one point, the crowd decided to let him go. When he tried to leave, someone in the crowd said his legs were fine. “Break his legs.” And the crowd assaulted him again.
Thieves and burglars are beaten mercilessly in the south Asian country that has a record of violent crimes. However, the gruesome assault on Rajon was unprecedented, and the death sentences were well deserved.
However, the macabre incident involving a child yesterday once again shocked the nation, and the world. Ten-year-old Sagar Barman died after eight workers at the textile factory forced a compressor nozzle inside his body through the rectum and switched it on. One person has been arrested in the case. It is not clear why Barman was victimised in a senselessly gruesome way. The police rescued 27 child workers in a raid on the factory.
Thousands of children work in perilous conditions in the impoverished nation. Child rights activists regularly hold protests and urge the government to address the problem.
The murder of the child by pumping air into his body has happened for the second time. Last year, similar cruelty claimed the life of another child. 13-year-old Rakib Hawlader died after co-workers forced air into his body with a compressor at a vehicle workshop. Two persons were given death for the murder.
The latest incident comes even after death sentences have been awarded to the perpetrators of last year’s incidents. This shows a disregard for law and lack of fear of the criminal justice system.
What drives a crowd to kill a child accused of stealing or what leads some persons to show their ingenuity in a fatal way on another child’s body? Developing societies are difficult to understand. They are a mix of institutions affected by economic and social stratification in a complex way.
Poverty itself cannot drive brutal crime. It could be the result of insensitive personalities formed by poor socialisation. Moreover, inequities of development create a sense of frustration in the individual who could take it out on other members of the society for the ‘injustices’ he has suffered.
Four people were sentenced to death in Bangladesh last year for beating to death a 13-year-old boy accused of stealing a bicycle. Samiul Alam Rajon was tied to an electric pole and beaten up by a mob. The autopsy showed 64 different injuries inflicted on his person. Rajon was hit repeatedly with an iron rod, while he screamed: “Please don’t beat me in this way, I will die.” At one point, the crowd decided to let him go. When he tried to leave, someone in the crowd said his legs were fine. “Break his legs.” And the crowd assaulted him again.
Thieves and burglars are beaten mercilessly in the south Asian country that has a record of violent crimes. However, the gruesome assault on Rajon was unprecedented, and the death sentences were well deserved.
However, the macabre incident involving a child yesterday once again shocked the nation, and the world. Ten-year-old Sagar Barman died after eight workers at the textile factory forced a compressor nozzle inside his body through the rectum and switched it on. One person has been arrested in the case. It is not clear why Barman was victimised in a senselessly gruesome way. The police rescued 27 child workers in a raid on the factory.
Thousands of children work in perilous conditions in the impoverished nation. Child rights activists regularly hold protests and urge the government to address the problem.
The murder of the child by pumping air into his body has happened for the second time. Last year, similar cruelty claimed the life of another child. 13-year-old Rakib Hawlader died after co-workers forced air into his body with a compressor at a vehicle workshop. Two persons were given death for the murder.
The latest incident comes even after death sentences have been awarded to the perpetrators of last year’s incidents. This shows a disregard for law and lack of fear of the criminal justice system.
What drives a crowd to kill a child accused of stealing or what leads some persons to show their ingenuity in a fatal way on another child’s body? Developing societies are difficult to understand. They are a mix of institutions affected by economic and social stratification in a complex way.
Poverty itself cannot drive brutal crime. It could be the result of insensitive personalities formed by poor socialisation. Moreover, inequities of development create a sense of frustration in the individual who could take it out on other members of the society for the ‘injustices’ he has suffered.
