Dear Readers,
1. This destroying of invaluable human lives and the costly national properties must be stopped.
2. Why the political parties are not
compromising? Do they consider Bangladesh as their personal property?
3. Bangladesh belongs to its citizens - all alike - not to any political party. Let there be a free and fair election.
4. We don't care who is or will be in power - we care for the safety of its citizens and the sovereignty of the country.
5. Are the
conscious citizens of Bangladesh taking enough measures to compel the political parties for compromising?
With best regards,
Muktijoddha Dr. Emarat Hossain Pannah (USA)
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Dr. Em Pannah, CISSP, CISM, CAP, NSA-IAM, NSA-IEM, Graduate Certificate in Cybersecurity, M.Sc., BS/MS, DM
Cybersecurity/Privacy/Information Assurance/IT Risk
Management Professional and Assistant Professor
Email: epa...@yahoo.com | Alternate Email: em.p...@faculty.umuc.edu
Phones: 301.358.9232 (Office) | 301.358.1912 (Fax) | 443.690.3955 (Cell)
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Published: Friday, December 6, 2013
Periscope
Ahmede Hussain

Photo: Star File
A Country’s Charred Hopes
It is indeed difficult to tell how many people have been murdered so far
in the last few days in incidents where passenger buses, both public
and private, are set to fire. What is quite unfathomable about them is
that the law enforcers have miserably failed to nab any one of the
perpetrators of such dastardly acts. The recent one in this long and
sordid list took place near Shahbag where the attack was apparently
orchestrated from both inside and outside the bus. Nineteen passengers
were burnt, of whom a student called Nahid succumbed to his injuries.
What however boggles our mind is that no precautionary step has been
taken by the law enforcing agencies to thwart such attack on moving
vehicles, especially when an opposition-called blockade has already
claimed 20 lives. We know what happens after a bus is set to fire: both
the major political parties condemn such barbaric acts; the Awami League
(AL) quite vociferously blames it on the opposition Bangladesh
Nationalist Party (BNP), which quickly points finger at its rival citing
an incident in 2006 where a bus was set to fire using gown-powder in
front of Hotel Sheraton at the heart of the capital.
The AL might be thinking that photos of charred bodies of bus arson
victims will help it to win some sympathy votes, proving it to the
electorate that the opposition parties lack human values. But at the
same time each photo of severely burnt victims of arson highlights the
government’s failure to provide security to its ordinary citizens.
It is indeed no less than clear that the government has failed to ensure
security to the general public. Instead of security-checking passengers
while boarding buses or guarding key places in the city to make
vehicular movements safe, the government has arrested some senior
leaders of the BNP on charges of vandalising public and private
properties. The nature of violence allegedly committed by them needs a
certain level of physical fitness, which these leaders, in their late
sixties and early seventies, are unlikely to possess. To make matters
rather ironic, the BNP high command is famous for calling one general
strike after another and passing hartal days in the comfort of their
armchairs in the party’s safely locked headquarters.
The arrests and denial of bail to top BNP leaders (despite a request
made by the Ambassador of one of Bangladesh’s major development
partners) also gives the wrong signal; that the AL-led government is not
serious about holding a dialogue to solve the present political
impasse. It is not rocket science that the BNP will see any government
move in the eyes of suspicion while some of its top leaders are arrested
or are not given bail in cases that are no less than ludicrous.

Photo: Star File
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