Clueless about Killings

Even four days after the killing of five persons at Bisonimukh Khergaon in Tinsukia district, it is unfortunate that there should be so little known either about the killers or the real motives for the wanton killings. It is natural for people to wonder whether the killers have actually managed to elude detection and prosecution or whether the authorities are unwilling to divulge the details of the killings because someone closely related to a VIP is involved in the killings. The authorities have been content to do what is the customary practice in similar circumstances—transfer the Sadiya superintendent of police Prasanta Sagar Sangmai and post someone else in his place three days after the killings. And since the transfer of police superintendent Sangmai took place on Monday, a day after the high-profile delegation of the Trinamul, led by Derek O’Brien visited the families of the victims, there is every reason to speculate that Sangmai’s transfer was just a means of claiming that the administration had taken some action over the tragic killings. It is the attitude that this kind of routine ritual is action enough after such killings that needs to come under serious attack from the media and our citizens. If the police force has failed to unearth either the killers or their motive even four days after the killings, the police force has to be made answerable not just to the families of the victims, but to the people of the State as well.