Why these vicious attacks?

We are dumfounded by the brutal attacks on student protesters, journalists and other citizens allegedly by Chhatra League men yesterday. These men, some wearing helmets and carrying sticks, swooped on students, parents, passers-by trying to take pictures. They smashed cameras and mobile phones. The students' demand for safe roads where everyone honours traffic rules is legitimate and should be taken seriously. And they expressed their demands through mainly peaceful protests. So why were they assaulted? Why didn't the law enforcers intervene in these attacks? Is it not their duty to protect the people, more so when they are young school-going students?

It is incomprehensible that when the situation could have been brought under control through assurances that the demand for safe roads would be met, that such ugly scenes should be played out on the streets. Journalists have also been attacked including a female journalist who was physically harassed because she was trying to take video footage of a procession. There are also reports of assaults on female students.

The ongoing transport strike is another display of the total disregard for public welfare. In response to the protests by students, the bus owners have been striking causing immense suffering to the commuters. Does this mean they will hold the public hostage whenever the latter tries to hold them accountable for violating traffic rules and reckless driving? In the last three and a half years, such disregard for law and lack of enforcement has resulted in more than 25,000 deaths. How is this acceptable to our transport authorities, our government and to the bus owners themselves?

We urge the government to immediately put a stop to the assaults on these students and other civilians. We also urge the students to understand that these reforms need time which has to be given. It is clear that individuals linked to the student body of the ruling party, who are taking part in these attacks, enjoy an impunity that allows them to regularly carry out such violence without any intervention from the law enforcers. Such impunity completely distorts the authority and responsibility of our law enforcers. Unless these men are reined in by the ruling party, the situation on the streets is bound to go out of hand.