One of the most disturbing aspects of the period under the interim government, following the monumental events of the July Uprising of 2024, was the sudden rise in mob violence, spread throughout the length and breadth of Bangladesh. Under various pretexts, and in all kinds of settings, we saw a dangerous tendency to attain certain objectives by sheer force of numbers, on the part of a certain segment of the population. Often it involved bloodshed and murder under the most harrowing circumstances you can imagine, and yet throughout those 18 months, the perpetrators mostly got a free pass. At least there was no notable crackdown or arrest of these malign elements, who were mostly out to secure their own agenda, but tried to pass it off as the people's demand, or even as a form of justice that the courts in Bangladesh were unable to deliver.

The interim government, trying to explain its failure to contain these elements, made the cardinal sin of making some pronouncements that worked to effectively greenlight their activities. Who can forget the attempt to pass off these dangerous people as "pressure groups"? It wasn't until the attack on the premises of the two most prominent newspapers in the country, Daily Star and Prothom Alo, took place, that the interim government finally seemed to realise the gravity of the situation. But by then, these groups had already taken advantage of the government's weaknesses - its lack of an electoral mandate, or a proven political constituency - to wreak havoc on the nation's conscience.

The BNP government that was subsequently elected in a landslide, could point to no such weaknesses on its own part, and it certainly came to office making all the right noises. It spoke of "zero tolerance" for mob violence. Its home minister, the imperious Salahuddin Ahmed, stood on the floor of Parliament and declared: "There will be no more mob culture in Bangladesh." And we believed him, because we really wanted to believe him.

Now whether or not you choose to describe what happened at Bangladesh Bank around the time of the previous governor Ahsan H. Mansur's removal, just nine days after the formation of the BNP's first government in almost twenty years, as a mob or not, this past week we were left in no doubt that the "mob culture", as the home minister chose to describe it, is far from finished in Bangladesh, and indeed, it may still be ruling. One was in Shahbagh, on the Dhaka University campus, when a group (it was later revealed they belong to a group called Azaadi Andolon, ironically) suddenly chose to attack a group of gay/transgender individuals who by all accounts were minding their own business. The next day in Kushtia, a self-proclaimed pir (godman) was brutally attacked in his premises, which was vandalised, while the pir himself was beaten to death.

The police's inaction in both incidents was notable, and worryingly reminiscent of the incidents we witnessed under the interim government. It has now been five days since the murder in Kushtia, yet no arrests have been made, despite countless videos showing the identifiable presence of several individuals from the locality. An explanation is in order here. Why have the home minister's promises fallen flat? Did his message fail to get through to law enforcers? Or did they choose to ignore him? How can there be no arrests as yet? The sooner we know the answers to these questions, the more we could feel reassured, of the government's intentions.