Victims hounded

It is extremely disconcerting to witness that 22 university students have been placed on two-day remands in cases filed over "vandalism and attacks on police." Numerous cases have been filed in different police stations where unknown students have been made the accused. But, what we witnessed in the last few days was that students and journalists were themselves the object of attacks, by activists clearly opposed to the road safety movement. The official claim has been that certain elements had infiltrated the protests over road safety and they were the ones who carried out the attacks. The role of the police, who many journalists and witnesses say were nearby when the attacks happened, remains unexplained. Why were the law enforcers unwilling to stop the helmeted and armed men who attacked the students and the journos? And why has there been no headway in identifying who this supposed external elements are? Instead, we see law enforcers going after these students—the victims are now being hounded again.

The legitimacy of the demands of the protesters is beyond question, and the government had rightly accepted them. Since the start of Traffic Week by the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, the number of people seeking licences and fitness certificates at the BRTA has reportedly increased one and a half time. There are around 20 lakh unregistered vehicles on the road.

It is a gross miscarriage of justice that students and journalists are having to pay the price for the violence perpetrated by these men. It is the responsibility of the police to find out who the attackers were. We also hope that the police clarify why it was silent when the attacks were made. It is a pity that university students have been detained and allegedly tortured. We demand that the due process of the law prevails and the police go after the attackers, instead of letting them go scot free despite attacking students and the media.