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| Volume 10 |Issue 17 | May 06, 2011 | |
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Letters BCL Feuds Continue The internecine conflict within Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) faction seems to surface intermittently. Earlier, when such intra-organisational clashes took a nasty turn leading to sporadic eruption of violence on different university campuses, they prompted a flurry of action among the top leadership of the ruling Awami League. Even the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina would issue serious warnings to the student body to behave, followed by expulsions at different levels of its leadership. The directives from Sheikh Hasina would result in a temporary lull. Some probe bodies, too, were formed. But very few of these came up with any concrete results and they did not leave any impact on the behaviour of the BCL. In the latest outbreak of violence at the Mohsin Hall of DU, which caused injury to around 70 students, circumstances point to that direction. Alarmingly, in most of these turf wars within BCL, lethal weapons including firearms are being used. That should provide enough reason for the ruling Awami League not to look at BCL feuds purely from the angle of organisational discipline but beyond it reflecting on the credibility of the government. It is a serious law and order issue as well and deserves to be dealt with accordingly. We expect that the probe body formed by the DU authority to look into the incident would be able to find out the real causes of Tuesday's campus violence and home in on the culprits behind it. Mohammed Jashim Uddin
Protectors or Terrorists? It seems that, of late, the police officers who are designated to help ensure the safety of us citizens are causing more harm and harassment above all else. Referring to an incident printed on the 22nd of april in The Daily Star: I fail to understand how a man charged for stealing a motor bike (which turned out to be based on false and proof-less accusation) can be beaten to death by the police under their custody. That too, the young man was the son of a sub inspector- Delwar Hossain. This is, in fact, not just a single incident we are looking at, but one of the countless examples of injustice and inhumane incidents with which many of the police have become synonymous. Living in the capital, I can recall several incidents which exemplify the everyday harassment us city folks have to undergo by these so called policemen. Check-posts have been set up to ensure 'our' safety. To ensure the streets are safe and clean! But then why is it that the policemen are not courteous to the least? Is it the lack of education? Or do they think they hold a certain level of power over us citizens? Even if so, is it right to hand over power to such uneducated blokes who use their positions to attain bribes and just be rude to citizens for rhyme or reason? Perhaps it is time that all of us citizens spoke up against these 'police officers,' and request the Prime Minister to take heed and scrutinise them and the way they are running day to day operations, for we citizens have truly had enough! Faria Samreen Nizam
Corporal Punishment On April 26, 2011 The Daily Star published a news saying a student of an English medium school in the capital stopped attending school since Thursday, when an administrator hit her and six others with a wooden ruler for protesting the expulsion of two classmates. I think it is very shocking news for us as citizens of a civilised country. When it happens in schools in rural areas it is bad enough, but it is absolutely unacceptable when this type of incident happen in a school in the city. This incident is a disgrace for all educational institutions where we send our children to be educated and learn ethics, not to learn how to become barbarians. The laws against corporal punishment must be implemented properly so that our children are safe from these monsters who call themselves educators. Rowshan Ali *The photo above is a reproduction. Submission Guideline: Letters to the Editor, Star Diary and Write to Mita, with the writer's name and address, should be within 200 words. All articles should be within 1,200 words. A cover letter is not necessary, but every write-up should include the writer's name, phone number and email address (if any). While The Star welcomes unsolicited articles and photographs, it cannot accept the responsibility of their loss or damage. The Star does not return unsolicited articles and photos. Response time for unsolicited write-ups ranges from three weeks to two months. All articles submitted are subject to editing for reasons of space and clarity.
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