Editorial
Outrageous incident in BIRDEM
Violence cannot be the arbiter of disputes
THE spectacle of two groups, one of which was the staff of BIRDEM, engaged in clashes in and around a premier hospital of Dhaka is detestable and abhorrent. The other group involved was students from another premier institution, Dhaka University.
If it was the use of a lift that led to the clash it seems that our patience has run thin and the threshold of tolerance has gone down so low as to allow a trivial incident to lead to altercation and eventually to degenerate into what can best fit the description of a pitched battle.
We fail to understand why the liftman had to respond with force when a patient wanted to have the use of the lift, reserved for service staff, for his ailing father, and what the justification of his associates was to join in the fray. We fail to understand why violence has to be the arbiter of arguments in a civilized society at least we claim to be civilised.
We fail to understand, by the same token, why the aggrieved student, without registering his complaint immediately, should come several hours later with his colleagues in a large number to seek redress. And why, after being assured by the BIRDEM authorities that appropriate action would be taken against the errant staff, should such senseless fighting follow? And why should the students set upon the hospital and lay siege to it and resort to vandalism? All these are mind boggling.
It is evident that there had been high-handedness on both sides, and both had indulged in excesses; one feels that with a bit of self restraint this reprehensible incident could have been avoided. What the two quarreling groups failed to realize was that it was the patients that were the ones who were the worst sufferers. The vandalism created panic in the surrounding areas too with severe traffic snarl up that lasted several hours.
While we feel that there should be a transparent inquiry into the incident and the guilty persons punished severely, we feel that there is a need also to look at the role of the police and other law enforcing agencies. One wonders why it took so long for the police to arrest the situation, given that the police control room is a stone's throw from BIRDEM.
The matter had been simmering since morning. It seems quite incredible that the police or the intelligence agencies did not get a wind of what was about to happen even when a group of several hundred students were moving from the university area towards the hospital. We think that there is a thing or two for the police to answer.
In the recent past we have seen minor incidents flaring up into violence which could have been settled amicably with timely police intervention. We feel it is time to think of a highly mobile rapid reaction force of the police, with the capability to interpose between such groups, and help bring about a peaceful solution without use of force, before the situation precipitates into violence.
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