Editorial
Blockades with no holds barred
If it's not terrorism, then what is?
THE opposition-called blockade enforced since Monday morning has been taking its toll with unprecedented show of violence and attendant death and destruction. Rail lines have been uprooted, buses set alight, crude bombs charged and missiles targeted indiscriminately killing around a dozen people and inflicting colossal damage on public and private properties. It is irresponsibility and recklessness at their worst.
We condemn such barbarism in the strongest of terms. The sad irony is all of this is being done in the name of protesting the Election Commission's declaration of the schedule for next general election amid prevailing political standoff.
Our question is why are you taking innocent people hostage for settling your scores with the EC or the government?
However, the government also cannot wash its hands of the present turn of events. For the government has left no room for the opposition to meet it the halfway over their demands for a neutral and non-partisan administration to oversee the next election. And to make matters worse, the government has been crying hoarse all the time over holding talks with the opposition, though no concrete step has so far been taken to that end. Sad to say, it has all proved a sham -- until now.
It is unfortunate that while the opposition and government are engaged in this slanging match, the unsuspecting public are getting punished for no fault of theirs. They must stop this cruel game, reach out to each other and spare the public further suffering.
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