Editorial
Students of private universities lock horns
Vandalism breaking new ground!
One would have thought that crowded public universities are places where violence and vandalism are usual occurrences at the slightest of provocations. Private universities were perceived to be largely immune to such brawls. Quite clearly, educational institutions in the public sector are not the sole claimant to displays of musclemanship. Even though private universities are not yet into political feuding and fisticuffing, yet occasionally their students might come to blows entirely out of the blue, driven by extremely petty causes.
The case in point is the clash between the students of Bangladesh University campus-2 and People's University. Disturbance broke out when students of the two private universities clashed over a car parking incident. They not only vandalised each other's institutions but also engaged in chases and counter chases resulting in traffic tailback in the busy Asad Gate area.
Often we get to see frayed tempers and scuffles after an initial altercation and nobody around would ever intervene to bring peace. People seem to amuse themselves with any untoward incident and even take sides. Basically, the police whose responsibility it is to control crowds through persuasion, disengaging the parties in a conflict they choose the convenient role of bystander. The police would have to be adequately trained in mob control methods.
Essentially though, civic sense would have to be instilled into the minds of the citizens, not through exhortations but by sensitising them about the evil consequences of individuals taking law into their own hands. This should be systematically done at the family, community, ward and above all institutional levels.
Respect for law and discipline cannot be imposed from the top; it has to come from within the society. For such a culture to grow, people from the top will have to set examples of disciplined behaviour.
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