Don't 'desertify' Gulshan

Fear, along with the government decision to closedown so called illegal establishments in Gulshan area as a reaction to the unfortunate killings in Holey Artisan has helped create the eerie character that Gulshan has taken on today.

It is very difficult to see the government's rationale in drawing a correlation between illegal commercial establishments in the area and the terrorist killings. What if the establishment had government approval? Would that have prevented the attack and the killings? 

However, it is quite another matter if the issue is of 'unauthorised' commercial establishment per se in a non-commercial area. But even here the government has a few questions to answer. How come these so called illegal entities came to be there in the first place? And how come most of these are running for decades without the relevant authorities taking note of it? 

We cannot also overlook the fact that these shops and eateries and places for get-together for all ages and hues had lent a cosmopolitan character to Dhaka city, and without which any semblance of a modern city that one attaches to the capital would be lost. 

The government should decide once and for all that there should be no more commercial establishments in residential areas including Gulshan. It should then deal with those that have actually encroached on public space and caused public inconvenience. Then there are those that are well established over a long period of time which should not come under a blanket order of removal because these commercial ventures have  added to our economy by creating thousand of jobs, closing down of which will have a serious impact on the lives and livelihood of many.