Arson victims also take to street for peace
In an attempt to express solidarity with people pouring out onto the streets protesting arson attacks and violence, transport workers with burn injuries demonstrated before Jatiya Press Club in the capital yesterday.
Symbolising the state of an ailing transport sector, owners and drivers of public buses and trucks brought along coffins and burnt buses with banners pasted reading “What was our fault?”
“How will you (BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia) run the country if you destroy the transport sector trying to go to power?” asked Khandoker Enayet Ullah, convener of Sarak-Paribahan Malik Sramik Oikyo Parishad, an organisation of transport owners and workers which formed a human chain there.
Urging the BNP-led 20-party alliance to keep the transport sector out of the purview of hartals and blockades, the parishad leaders said transportation of goods was an integral part of any production and the country's development would be hampered if the transport sector fell apart.
“Many owners of public transports bought vehicles with bank loans. As the transport sector is going through a tough time, the government should ask banks to stop taking interest from owners,” said Osman Ali, secretary general of light vehicle drivers' organisation Halka Jan Chalak Samity.
He also urged the authorities concerned to compensate transport workers for injuries they suffered in arson attacks during the alliance's ongoing blockade.
Protesting the spate of violence, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) brought out a procession with a banner, “Rally for Peace”, from Bangladesh National Museum to Central Shaheed Minar belting out the slogan, “No to violence and terrorism”.
Leaders and activists of human rights and professional organisations joined the procession.
NHRC members Kazi Reazul Hoque and Prof Mahfuza Khanom and Prof Farid Uddin Ahmed of Dhaka University spoke at a rally NHRC organised on the shaheed minar premises afterwards.
In another procession brought out by Bangladesh Peace Council from Central Shaheed Minar, where they organised a rally, to Jatiya Press Club, speakers said killing women, children and general public with Molotov cocktails was never a way of waging a movement for democracy.
“Through the indiscriminate violence, the arsonists are not only destroying the country's economy but waging a war against the country,” said the council Vice President Mozaffar Hossain Paltu.
Liberation War Museum Trustee Board Member Sarwar Ali and the council General Secretary MA Kashem also spoke.
Forming another human chain before Jatiya Press Club, Bangladesh Peace Party urged both Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda to sit for dialogues “for the sake of saving innocent people's lives and livelihoods”.
The party Chairman Abduillah Shahid said, “People who are responsible for such an impasse must be held accountable for people's sufferings.”
At a press conference organised in Jatiya Press Club, a faction of Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists blamed the ruling Awami League's “autocratic nature” for the political impasse.
Meanwhile, Rapid Action Battalion-6 organised another press conference in Khulna city's Sonadanga Bus Stand with its commanding officer, Lt Col Enamul Arif Sumon, urging people and journalists to help nab the arsonists and stating of his firm determination to control the violence and terrorism, reports our Khulna correspondent.
Khulna Press Club also formed a human chain at the picture palace intersection on the Khulna-Jessore highway, participated by teachers, students and representatives of organisations and professional bodies.
They demanded that the government take special arrangements on ensuring a congenial environment for holding the Secondary School Certificate exams and urged the alliance to lift the blockade over the same reason.
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