Bangladesh teenagers demanding road safety paralyse Dhaka

লিখেছেন লিখেছেন নুর হুসাইন ০৩ আগস্ট, ২০১৮, ০২:০৭:০১ রাত

Thousands of Bangladeshi high school students have been protesting for a fifth day after two teenagers were killed by a speeding bus.

The demonstrators, demanding justice and road safety measures, have brought the capital Dhaka to a virtual standstill.

A government minister has accused them of hypocrisy, triggering further anger.

The education ministry has closed high schools across the country and promised to take their demands into account.

However, this did not end the protests.

"They should have taken our demands seriously, but they didn't," Imran Ahmed, a protesting student, told AFP.

protesting studentsImage copyrightEPA

Image caption

The students say they want justice and improved road safety

There are reports that some of the protesters, mostly aged in their mid-teens, have been checking bus registration plates and demanding to see drivers' identity documents.

"We don't want any vehicles without licences on the streets. Those unfit to drive should not get licences, and we don't want underage motorists driving public transport," protester Mohammad Sifat told AFP.

Some vehicles have been vandalised and police armed with shields and batons have driven the protesters back in some parts of the city.

Bangladesh profile

Bangladesh fury over lynching video

Can plastic roads help save the planet?

Bus operators have responded by suspending their services.

Bangladesh's transport sector is regarded by many as corrupt and dangerous.

Protesters destroyed a busImage copyrightEPA

Image caption

Some buses were vandalised during the demonstrations

The protests erupted after news that a boy and a girl had been killed on Sunday, struck by a bus racing for passengers, spread quickly on social media.

Minister Shajahan Khan - who has links to transport unions - then fuelled the outrage by asking why the high school students had not shows the same reaction when 33 people died in a bus crash in India on Saturday. He later apologised.

On Wednesday Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said the government would launch a public transport safety campaign.

Researchers from the National Committee to Protect Shipping, Roads and Railways say more than 4,200 pedestrians were killed in road accidents last year up a quarter from the previous year.

বিষয়: বিবিধ

৫০৮ বার পঠিত, ০ টি মন্তব্য