Unite to resist acid violence

A partial view of the meeting against acid violence, held at Shaheed Abdur Razzak Park in Satkhira yesterday. PHOTO: STAR

Several thousand people including women attended a rally and marched the streets hand in hand yesterday, chanting various slogans against acid violence and demanding tougher laws to eliminate the henous crime.

The programme was organised by Satkhira Development Network (SDN), a local NGO with assistance from the Acid Survivors Foundation (ASF).

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The procession was brought out from Satkhira Government High School and terminated at Satkhira Shahid Abdur Razzak Park with a rally.

With Farida Akhtar Banu in the chair, the rally was addressed by, among others, Prof. Asit Kumar Majumdar, journalists Prof. Abu Ahmed and Kamruzzaman, Abdus Sabur, Kazi Saidur Rahman, Monzur Hossain, Sheikh Haroon Ur Rashid and acid victims Jhharna Khatun and Rabiul Islam.

The speakers made an appeal to all, specially civil society members, to stand by the survivors of acid violence and help them to lead a normal life. They stressed the need for treatment and rehabilitation of the victims and to create awareness against the crime.

They said acid throwing incidents increased alarmingly across the country as the culprits escape punishment, using legal loopholes. They demanded tougher laws to curb the crime and joint efforts by people of all classes to create awareness against the crime.

At the rally acid violence victim Jhharna Khatun and Rabiul Islam described their ordeals and called for extending a helping hand for rehabilitation of all such victims in the country and for tougher laws to stop recurrence of such incidents.

Creating awareness among people could reduce the crime to a great extent, they said. Some of the speakers termed acid terrorists as enemies of society and called for socially boycotting them.