Editorial
Violence cannot achieve anything
We condemn it in the strongest of terms
Activists of 12 Islamist parties including Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir came out in large numbers after Friday prayers in the city as elsewhere in the country and clashed with the law-enforcers.
A large number of journalists were hurt while discharging their professional duties.
According reports, so far at least two persons have been killed and around 200 received injuries, some 20 sustaining bullet wounds.
From the extent and scale of violence and the way it took place at a time across the country, it evidently has been orchestrated and premeditated. Activists of different like-minded Islamist organisations chanted slogans demanding death to the bloggers and on-line activist youths of Projonmo Chattar at Shahbagh. At the same time, at various places across the country Gonojagoron platforms were ransacked.
The terror tactics of Jamaat-Shibir and other Islamist activists have caused panic among the public in the city as elsewhere in the country.
The police held their ground and they met the violence with courage. In many places they found it hard to control the situation and restore peace. But in the end, they were able to restore normality and peace.
As in the past, we condemn any kind of violence as a means of holding certain political programmes to press for demands.
It is important to note that, the 17-day movement launched by the Shahnagh's Projonmo Chattar youth activists was non-violent and peaceful.
But on the contrary, the Jamat-Shibir and other pro-Islamist campaigners are using extreme form of violence as a method of their protestations.
Extreme and violent means have never paid, far less helped anyone achieve one's ends.
We hope good sense will prevail and Islamist parties including Jamaat-Shibir will shun the path of violence.
May we point out that the kind of rabid violence demonstrated on Friday can only lend credence to Projonmo Chattar's latest demands.
The law-enforcement agencies clearly have a job on hand to prevent further violence and ensure peace and security of citizens.
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