Violence for peace

Yesterday there was renewed violence in Dhaka. There was a rumor spread in Dhaka city that BNP leader and the son of ex-Prime Minister Tarique Rahman injured himself in custody of law enforcers slipping on a bathroom floor. After that pro-BNP students went on a rampage on and around campuses of Dhaka University, Dhaka College and BUET.

The Daily Star reports:

The mob also vandalised around 30 vehicles and set two ablaze during the rioting.

In a related late development in Bogra, BNP backed Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) activists set fire to the engine of a train in Gabtoli area, around 8:00pm. Earlier, they staged demonstrations and blocked roads and railways protesting government's 'disregard' towards Tarique.

Around 2:00pm in the capital, JCD activists torched a microbus on Mirpur Road near Dhaka College, leading to an explosion of the vehicle's CNG cylinder, a splinter from which hit Jahangir Alam, a cloth trader, in the chest.

This death poses us a question. What is one's life worth in Bangladesh? If you are a political leader (with mammoth corruption charges) even your slightest of falls are worthy for an uproar. And if you are an ordinary citizen like Jahangir Alam even your death is remembered as just another name in the daily news.

I am sure no proper investigations will follow to hunt Jahangir's killers. No intelligence authority will hunt them down like they did the photographer who shot the photo in this post.

And yet the politicians will preach that violence is required for peace.



At whose expense? People like Jahangir?

Update: Shafiur proposes some anti-slip bath mats to prevent such death.