Who is responsible?
Saif Tinku, North Badda, Dhaka
Who is responsible for the two days of loss of lives and properties in Bangladesh? To seek the answer we should go back to the days when the outgoing government raised the retirement age of the Justices from 65 to 67. The opposition in the parliament didn't oppose it instantly. Rather, the opposition demanded reforms in electoral laws and caretaker government, which is the outcome of the cumulative failure of all political forces since 1991. Neither the government nor the opposition wanted to discuss the reform issue in parliament. One thing we should learn from the latest crisis: politicians must be farsighted. ***Yesterday, I was sitting with my class friend in my drawing room and watching the Channel-i. I was watching the news and my friend came to me at that time. On the TV screen I saw some horrible scenes. I was scared and my friend asked me a question. His question was just like this- are your countrymen mad? I could not answer this question. I had to explain the political situation of our country and after hearing everything he was depressed. Not only my friend, we are deeply shocked and scared about this kind of political culture. We got a country in 1971 by sacrificing hundreds of thousands of lives. But what are we watching today? Md Saifur Rashid, Sevenoaks, Kent ***I was horrified to view on ntv Awami League activists beating up Jamaat workers at Purana Paltan in the afternoon of Saturday. My eight-year-old son was around. I asked him to leave the room. I did not want him to view and learn that people could be so cruel. In 1973, I was a student of Rangpur Zilla School and there was a Rakkhi Bahini camp right on the big school compound. Often on way back from the school we were drawn to the camp by cries of people being subjected to torture. Rakkhi Bahini soldiers would bring people on trucks (from where we could never figure out), get them down and then start beating them with batons and bricks until these poor creatures succumbed to death. I still remember the Bichitra cover story on murder on the street written by Kazi Anwar Hossain. It was so shocking, so demoralising. Today I write to you with a very heavy heart. And I know I shall not calm down unless I see that people protest violence as such. From ntv, it is easily possible to precisely find out those who took part in the killing on the street. I suggest that posters be printed with their photographs asking people to refrain from violence. Can the High Court ask the government to establish identity of those cruel people and take legal action against them? Will the media help the police in this regard by supplying photographs and video footage. And what about our 'dear' leaders Sheikh Hasina and M. A. Jalil who had asked their party men to lay siege to Dhaka with sticks and poles? Was not that an open instigation? Will not justice call for action against them too? Cannot the court of law initiate suo moto action against such political leaders? In fact, these senseless leaders should be held first and penalised for instigating violence. Ajitkumer Roy, Dollis Hill, London
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