Editorial
Another death, another spate of violence
The culture of violent reaction must end
In the endless repetition of road tragedies, yet another young life was extinguished in the Mirpur area on Sunday as a bus ran over a college student while he was getting off the vehicle he was travelling by. Reportedly, what caused the anger in particular was the fact that the victim was made to get off the bus hurriedly by the helper. What followed was complete anarchy on the street which lasted several hours.
Such deaths cannot be tolerated, and while one cannot question the resentment in the fellow students caused by the grief, we feel that what we saw happen following the unfortunate death was a senseless show of anger. And the unsuspected road users, who had nothing to do with the death or had any idea of what was going on, had to suffer indescribable misery
The fellow students of the victim from Dhaka Commerce College, in order to avenge the death of their colleague, not only torched two buses including the killer bus, they also vandalised some 40 other vehicles and blockaded the road that created a tailback of several kilometres and traffic snarl that lasted for several hours.
While the students had every right to protest, and they should have done so peacefully, one wonders whether their way of protesting has done any good to their cause or evinced the sympathy of the public. On the contrary their action has received the deepest contempt from the passers by. And if anything, their action has insulted the memory of the deceased. And this is what they students must understand.
We feel that a thorough enquiry should be carried out and the errant persons, in this case the helper and the driver, who had managed to escape from the scene of occurrence, must be brought to book. And while nothing can recompense the loss of a son, the victim's family must be paid adequate compensation.
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