Expulsion is not enough

TWO BCL members have been expelled following Sunday's RU mayhem.  Even the police seemed to look away when by their sides those gun-toting pro-ruling party cadres were firing shots into the protesting students' crowd. The expulsion appears to be a kid-glove approach to the rowdy elements.. This has the echo of the same kind of treatment meted out to the unruly BCL elements in the past tenure of the AL government.  There is also another familiar ring to it: blaming it on opportunistic intrusion into the student body.    
Obaidul Quader, AL presidium member and communications minister, has blamed the violence on criminals that infiltrated into the ranks of BCL. We are flabbergasted at the AL leadership's veiled attempt to sidetrack the reality on the ground, which is very unfortunate.
Following incidents of violence on the DU and RU campuses in 2010 in  which BCL cadres were involved, even  prime minister Sheikh Hasina warned of action regardless of the culprits' political affiliations.  
The delinquent members of BCL read nothing but pure indulgence in such casual attitude of the AL leadership towards them. Sunday's incident is a perhaps the first warning of what is to come, unless the AL decides to keep the members of its student wing on a tight leash.  
The crucial jobs for the AL are to ensure that student cadres are disarmed and to take deterrent measures taken against the perpetrators of RU mayhem.