Bangladesh, May 21 -- The country is in the grip of a deepening security crisis. Within the span of forty-eight hours, the country has been confronted with two horrific crimes against children, multiple extortion-linked killings, and the arrest of individuals accused of demanding crores of taka in protection money - a convergence of violence that has provoked rare public fury and renewed demands for accountability from the government.

The case that has most galvanised public outrage concerns Ramisa Akter, an eight-year-old second-grade student, who was raped and murdered in Section-11 of Pallabi, Mirpur, on Tuesday. Her body was discovered by her mother and neighbours inside a flat in the same five-storey building where her family lived ...