Students take to streets again

After nearly one and a half months, students took to the streets again, demanding safe roads.

The protest took place hours after four people -- including three members of a family -- were killed, after a bus hit an auto-rickshaw on Dhaka-Chattogram highway in Matuail area.

At around 11:00am, students of various schools, colleges and universities staged a protest at the capital's Rampura Bridge area, as their 11-point demand for safe roads, was not implemented yet.

Khilgaon Model College student Shohagi Samia, who led the protest, said, "We have not seen any initiative from the government even after we gave it more than 20 days. Journalists are also dying on the roads. The victims of road crashes are students and children, the future generation of this country. The workers are also dying."

Samia said that considering the shutdown of schools and colleges due to the pandemic, they would soon announce protest programmes for the coming days.

Mohammad Ali Tusher, a student of Daffodil International University, said, "Deaths on roads continue one after another. Everything is out of control. The government is not being able to bring order on the roads. So, we decided to take to the streets again."

Some of their demands include ensuring safe roads, speedy justice, adequate compensation for those killed in road accidents and half-fares for public transport for students.

They also want well-planned bus stops and parking spaces, strict implementation of relevant laws, properly trained drivers, a modern and effective traffic system, and an accountable Bangladesh Road Transport Authority through proper monitoring.

After a series of protests in 2018, the road-safety demonstrations resumed last year, after Notre Dame College student Nayeem Hasan was killed by a Dhaka South City Corporation vehicle in the capital's Gulistan area on November 24.

The protests spread to Rampura, after a Secondary School Certificate examinee of Ekramunnesa Boys High School, Mainuddin Islam, was crushed to death by a bus of Anabil Paribahan on November 29.