First, I support the “Quota Reform Movement” of the students of Bangladesh. It’s ridiculous to maintain such a discriminatory quota. While their grandfathers were freedom fighters, it is unjust for all their descendants, generation after generation, to continue receiving these advantages.
More than 50 students have died as of yesterday as they called for the government to abolish a rule reserving scores of public jobs for the families of veterans from the country’s independence war in 1971.
The government shoots students like birds. The police could arrest these students without shooting them. The government must take responsibility.
No, I have never seen any party-led government take responsibility for killing civilians in Bangladesh. I saw the Awami League government, the BNP government, and the Ershad-led military government. No government has taken responsibility.
Yes, I sometimes forget that Bangladesh was born out of Pakistan, and whether it is the Awami League, BNP, or others, they are literally descendants of Pakistan. What else can we expect?
One party goes, and another comes. The situation does not improve; it worsens, just like in present-day Pakistan. After a few years, it might even surpass the Taliban in Afghanistan.
The government of Bangladesh imposed Section 144. The Bangladesh military is trying to bring the situation under control.
Will the students back down?
The students protesting and demanding the “Quota Reform Movement” are not only Chakmas, whom the military shoots in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. These students are not from the Bawm Community of Bandarban, nor are they Marma, Tripura, or other Indigenous people of the Chittagong Hill Tracts.
Controlling student movement is different from Hills. The military can easily shoot Indigenous children in the Chittagong Hill Tracts but not their own children in the plain districts. So, the result of imposing 144 may not be as the government expects.
The government must resolve the issue politically and according to democratic principles, not by shooting bullets into the chests of students. Furthermore, those who shot and killed innocent students must be punished.
Photo: FACEBOOK
