THE situation in the country is so desperate that it has gone far beyond the parameters of what we have so far known as political gridlocks. With innocents dying or burning out every day, law enforcers taking a toll in so-called cross-fires, economy, education, public health and livelihoods in jeopardy as BNP and AL swear by a fight-to-finish amid forebodings of a still darker future, any collective voice of sanity rings out a positive note.

LITTLE do we realise the severe trauma that surviving burn victims go through. The suffering is so much that many of them wished that they were better dead than alive. Regrettably, due to the spate of violence we have witnessed in the last five weeks, their numbers are accreting every day. What the country has in its hands are more disabled and more infirm people who cannot get by on their own.

The BNP has again called for 72-hour hartal. We condemn it most strongly. We do so more because the fate of one and a half million students is being played foul with. An unthinking continuation of hartal imperils the plight of students which is already in dire straits having been caught up in two disruptive spells of exam rescheduling. Further uncertainty looms over their academic career with degenerate politics showing no signs of abating.

According to a report by UNB, we understand that more than half our missions abroad have failed to attain their export targets in the current fiscal (2014-15). It is sad to see that important embassies and high commissions abroad in cities like Washington, Berlin and London are among those on the list. Export earnings target for the July–December period fell short by more than $700 million, which is approximately 4.42 percent lower than the target set.