Editorial
Jamaat-Shibir violence erupts again
What purpose is served by this?
In a virulent form of demonstration demanding release of top Jamaat leaders accused of war crime charges and facing trial, Jamaat-Shibir men locked in clashes with the police on Wednesday. In the process, at least thirty persons were injured, several vehicles vandalised and traffic forced into a standstill on Malibag-Rampura stretch of the DIT Road and its adjacent thoroughfares. This happened for more than an hour with ripple effect felt along a large swathe.
What is particularly disturbing is their forming into procession and suddenly appearing at one traffic intersection or other as they go about blasting cocktails, hurling brick chips with the result that the police fired several rubber bullets and teargas canisters to bring the situation under control.
The sudden eruptions of bellicosity on the part of Jamaat-Shibir have fallen into a pattern and the police's reflexive action has had to be matching as well. The public are made to suffer through unexpected disruption of their activity.
By the look of things, the Jamaat is getting into a mode of unleashing violence through staging programmes in different parts of the county. For instance, like in the recent past, Jamaat created troubles beyond Dhaka -- in Chapainawabganj and Chittagong.
Just because a programme has been announced previously does not necessarily mean it would not be watched over and any violent act would be allowed to pass with impunity.
So long as a political party or its student wing hold processions peacefully, there should be no reason to resist it. It's only when Jamaat crosses the line, uses muscle, blast cocktails, vandalises vehicles and hold the traffic to ransom that a law and order situation is created in which those who are in charge of public security cannot sit idly by.
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