The killing of Narsighdi mayor Lokman Hossain on Tuesday night by a masked assailant is as shocking as it is a pointer to the deplorable state of law and order in the country.
And the scarier side of the tragedy is that if the mayor of a municipality is so vulnerable to the guns of a miscreant, then one can easily imagine the level of insecurity the common man is exposed to.
In this particular case, when the victim was having a meeting with his people at the party office, a lone gunman shot him from point blank range and got away. For such an important public functionary there ought to have been arrangements for personal security including a guard at the gate to challenge the masked intruder.
Sadly though, it is not the only case of political leaders and public representatives being thus made easy targets of the killers' guns. The publicity secretary of Khulna Awami League Gazi Abdul Halim also met with a similar fate on Wednesday. In this connection, we may also recall how the upazila chairman of Boraigram in Natore was beaten to death in broad daylight in October last year.
In all the cases, the killers have not only succeeded in their missions unchallenged, in many cases the law could not reach them long after the incidents had occurred.
The killers of the Boraigram upazila chairman escaped justice. And such impunity for murderers was most glaring in the case of AHM Biplob, who was convicted in the murder of Laxmipur BNP leader Nurul Islam, and sentenced to death. But how lucky for the killer, he is now a free man, thanks to a presidential pardon.
The impunity of the killers in all the cases mentioned draws not only a pathetic picture of law and order, but of justice as well.
We hope the same will not happen in the case of the killer of Narsingdi mayor. He must be brought to justice, along with accomplices, if any.