Stop Acting Only After Bloodshed

How many more innocent children must die before our leaders stop offering hollow sympathies and finally take real action to protect the very future of the nation? The cold-blooded murder of 13-year-old Ishayat Shahriar Opratim, the son of a Comilla University teacher, should outrage every citizen who still expects basic safety from this state. A seventh-grader left home with his mother’s iPhone just to take photos, only to be lured away, bludgeoned over the head, and dumped in a secluded area near Lalmai Hill by older teenagers he considered acquaintances. A child was brutally killed over a smartphone - let that sink in.

While law enforcement arrested the suspects, recovered the phone and obtained confessions, these actions after his death bring zero comfort. Where was the state’s protection before a 13-year-old’s life was stolen? What good are arrests to a grieving mother standing beside her only child’s lifeless body? We keep repeating the absurd advice to “tell children to avoid strangers,” ignoring that the people threatening our kids may be right in our neighbourhoods, emboldened by lawlessness and youth-gang impunity.

Worst of all, Opratim’s murder isn’t an isolated tragedy; it is part of a horrifying pattern showing how dangerously cheap children’s lives have become. Police Headquarters data reveals that a staggering 15,717 children were reported missing between January and July alone - an average of over 70 children disappearing daily, with more than 2,000 remaining completely untraced. Beyond the missing, thousands of minors face physical abuse, extortion and lethal violence at the hands of juvenile gangs (kishore gangs) operating openly in urban and semi-urban hubs. When minor devices and local turf dynamics are enough to trigger child murders, the myth of neighbourhood security completely shatters.

What kind of monstrous, indifferent society have we built where minor disputes, peer envy, or a piece of technology instantly trigger fatal violence against our children, while the rest of us sit back and wait for the next tragedy?

Our state machinery operates on a lazy, reactionary loop: a tragedy breaks out, public outrage flares, police issue press releases about arrests, and everyone moves on until the next body drops. That is not governance; that is an insult to justice. Arresting suspects after a funeral does not mean the system works. It rather means the system failed to keep our children alive in the first place.

We must demand swift, unrelenting and exemplary punishment for Opratim’s killers and the perpetrators who target minors. But a trial after the fact is the bare minimum. 

We need an aggressive overhaul of child-safety systems, including dedicated rapid-response units for missing children, stronger action against juvenile gang networks and community-level child protection mechanisms. Stop giving us excuses. Stop issuing press briefings as if making arrests after the loss of a young life is an accomplishment. And start protecting our children before they end up in a morgue.