Students take over Dhaka in protest to a chronic ill-managed traffic system.
Thousands of students had taken to the streets of Dhaka to demand better road safety. 2 students were killed by a speeding bus on Sunday, July 29th and protests have been going on since. They brought the city on a standstill and in fact, the students have been chanting, “We want justice” and checking people’s driving license as well as blocking main junctions.
Social media has been the forefront of mobilizing this mass protest. Now many pictures and videos are being shared with the hashtags –road safety ,We Want Justice .
In the last year, more than four thousand two hundred There are lots of cartoons being shared, criticizing what they call a corrupt and dangerous transport system. The students don’t seem to be moving out of the streets anytime soon either.
But what began as a road safety protest quickly coalesced into a wider movement against incompetent governance and greed. For some, the protesters embody the younger generation’s festering discontent over the direction of their country, endemic corruption and their struggles to get by in the world’s most overcrowded city.
The government had ordered all schools and colleges in the country to remain closed on Thursday, but students in their uniforms, carrying their ID cards, came out in the streets.
Parents and guardians of the students as well as general people were seen joining the student protesters on Thursday, standing with them in the rain.
Like the previous days, the protesters regulated traffic on the streets and stopped vehicles to check if the drivers were carrying valid driving licences.
No activities of the traffic police were seen on the streets where the students took over control.
The protesters the cars of ministers, high-ranking police officials and government officials, many of which were found to have drivers with no valid licences.
At some places, protesters handed the drivers without licences over to traffic police officials for legal procedure.
Water Resources Minister Anwar Hossain Manju’s car was stopped in Dhanmondi, where students found that his driver had no licence. The minister later got out of his car and left his area in another car.
Reports of vandalism in several areas came in; a number of buses, motorcycles and private cars were vandalized when the drivers did not follow the protesters’ instructions.
A group of students assaulted a traffic sergeant and set his motorcycle on fire in Dhanmondi when he refused to show his licence and shouted at and shoved one of them, witnesses said.
Commuters faced a severe transportation crisis after owners removed buses from the streets, while many tried to hire rickshaws that charged two to three times the normal fare.
Many opted to walk, while others went back home.
Demonstrations demanding justice for Mim and Rajib gained momentum in the rest of Bangladesh as well.
Students in the surrounding areas of Dhaka and in many districts across the country took to the streets and demonstrated demanding road safety.
Protesters blocked off the Ashikpur bypass on the Dhaka-Tangail highway in the Tangail Sadar upazila in the morning.
“We are holding this demonstration in protest of the accident in Dhaka that left two college students dead. We are highlighting our 9-point demand,” an 11th-grader told the Dhaka Tribune.
Elenga Highway police checkpoint In-Charge Azizur Rahim Talukder said: “The students are engaged in a peaceful demonstration. They are allowing ambulances and vehicles carrying patients to pass through.”
Students were seen forcing the traffic police to file cases against drivers and owners of vehicles that lacked legal documents. The protesters were also checking the legal documents of the drivers and cars themselves.
In Chandpur, some students reportedly vandalized a few buses and trucks on the road, but did not damage smaller vehicles.
Chapainawabganj saw students bringing out a procession and staging a human chain around 11am. Students were seen participating in demonstrations holding banners, festoons, and chanting slogans.
Students chanted “We want justice” while circling the Kushtia city thoroughfares. People of every social stratum expressed solidarity with the movement.
Sreyoshi Sehereen Sattar
Editor
Opinion
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