Police high-handedness again!

THE cluster of photos published in a prominent Bangla daily day before yesterday, showed police manhandling some girl students. The girls were demanding repeat of tests for admission to university, which the police resisted. Why batton charge  girl students? This is the second time that women have been publicly mistreated by law enforcers. Earlier, they became ruthless with some nurses, which had a very bad impression on the public mind. We condemn both the incidents.

Let's not forget that people have right to assemble and put across grievances to the authorities in a democracy. Also, the usual practice is that women police deal with female protestors but it seems the rule is not being followed.

When the police become resistive and over-reactive then things go awry. Police will have to master the art of persuasion and learn how to control a group of protestors. At one stage the demonstrators went in a small group to submit their memorandum to the PM's office. That was the way to go about it.

Why did the police suddenly use water cannons on their return? This made the students run helter skelter, with the police reportedly lathi charging the students again. Just as this was avoidable so was the stoppage of traffic.

A proactive role of the authority and allowing peaceful submission of demands could have averted the chaotic situation.