The release is reported to be the result of negotiations between police officials and some ruling party leaders who were acting under instructions of a deputy minister. The freed men were accused of murdering an AL activist recently. And, seemingly the worst part of it is that they have been released unconditionally. Though a police officer has claimed that they were set free because there were no "specific allegations" against them, the very fact that there was some kind of a consultation between ruling alliance leaders and law enforcers will certainly raise some eyebrows on the justifiability of the police action. Doubts creep in as another police officer said, quoting witnesses, that one of the released men, together with some masked men, had actually beaten the AL activist to death.

All this might lead people to think that although Bangla Bhai looks like being a 'fugitive', he and his associates are being sheltered by the law. The BNP leader who reportedly negotiated the deal admitted that he was working under instructions of a deputy minister. This gives the whole thing an unmistakable political hue. And it becomes all the more noticeable when we take into account a Jamaat leader's attempt to pass Bangla Bhai off as a fictional character.

But the barbaric acts of the JMJB are far from fictional episodes. Different quarters have already expressed their deep concern about the emergence of a self-styled vigilante group which seeks to kill and maim as part of its own political agenda. That is a dangerous proposition which no sane element can approve of. The government was expected to counter the evil force with a sense of purpose and determination. But the arrest-and-release syndrome suggests that matters are still far from clear.

We urge the government to embark on a decisive course of action to neutralise the evil force called JMJB.