A question of why

Even the most deranged mind should find it hard to believe that anybody would ever think of desecrating the holy book of the predominant religion of a country. Yet that cheap ploy has been used repeatedly from Ramu to Nasirnagar to the most recent one in Cumilla.

Yet it shows how easy it is to manipulate the mob mind using the omnipotent social media.

Why is this happening, one after another? Certainly those who have done it have political gains to make. They have perversely primed the fanatic intent against the Hindu religious festival this time. They timed it when Bangladesh was just coming out of the Covid spectre and business prospects were looking great.

They found it a very easy way to create chaos because those who perpetrated the past events are yet to be punished. And punishment had to be severe.

Distressingly enough, none of the 33 cases filed in connection with the 2012 mob attack on a Buddhist village in Ramu, the 2016 Nasirnagar violence on the Hindu community, the 2013 atrocities on local Hindus at Santhia upazila in Pabna, and the 2019 attack of minority communities in Bhola has gone to trial, with most of them still stuck in the investigation phase.

This time it is not only a national shame brought on by the incidents but also an attempt to undermine the country's development efforts.

At the same time, the public reaction to the alleged desecration of the holy Quran also makes one rethink what went wrong in making the country truly secular and logical in its thinking.

The Cumilla incident reminds us of how fanatic groups spread a photograph showing jailed war criminal Delwar Hossain Sayeedi's face on the moon when he was being tried in a court, looking to create nationwide chaos. In a similar fashion, miscreants tagged an image depicting the desecration of the Quran on the timeline of a fake Facebook account under a Buddhist male name that culminated in the Ramu tragedy.

The repeated misuse of social media, aimed at destabilising communal harmony and/or satisfying parochial personal or group interest, calls for a response that should be harsh and prompt.

Pandering to the evil forces can only beget greater evil.