Editorial
Dreadful spate of violence
Shun this path
Sunday's early morning violence took the city dwellers by surprise. A gathering by Jamaat-e-Islami activists after Fajr prayers ahead of a reception for freedom fighters by the BNP later in the day, turned into a crash and burn episode. This left one person dead, several injured and public and private vehicles damaged in the city centre. The police reportedly having prior information were out on the streets just as early and did their part to try and quell the violence.
A number of questions are raised by this incident, however, the key one is what was the opposition hoping to achieve from it? If it was their voices that they wanted to be heard, we have stressed time and again that the place to do this is the Parliament. If it was simply to be a peaceful demonstration and not an episode of premeditated confrontation, then it must be asked why and how the activists were in possession of weapons such as cocktail bombs, as if prepared for violence, which then went off in a series of explosions across the city centre. This found an echo in the torching of vehicles in some other parts of the country which left one dead in Sylhet.
This sudden eruption of violence stands in contrast to the generally restrained temper of the opposition demonstrations such as road marches and rallies. If this is the foretaste of what is to come, we can only express our gravest concern at what the country is heading towards in the coming months. The opposition has its right to dissent, as does any other individual or group in a functioning democracy and we cannot stress the importance of this enough. However, violence has never been the answer to anything and it never will be. We abhor this means of dealing with the nation's problems and urge the government, opposition and all other political parties to exercise restraint and, above all, democratic principles in resolving political problems as they should be resolved -- through political means.
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