In fact attacking
transports on the flimsiest grounds or no ground have become an integral part of life in Bangladesh that begs a long overdue very stern governmental and
societal response
Car bashing: This culture must end
Vehicles are torched and vandalized frequently in the roads of Dhaka city as well as in all other cities and towns of Bangladesh. The attempted car bashing in one such incident was reported in this paper recently. For example, a road accident involving the trampling down of a pedestrian by a running bus, can trigger off rage among those nearby leading to their attacking not only the bus but sometimes even other vehicles on the spot.
But it is not even ascertained in such cases most of the time whether the accident happens from carelessness, whether the dead or injured one from it has taken enough caution or not while crossing the road. Time and again the media, civil society and different organizations have been screaming at the top of their voice that the authorities should enforce the laws better against speeding and careless road crossing by pedestrians. But the same have gone in vain.
However, this apathy cannot be justifications either for taking law into their hands by the so called aggrieved ones. Any foreigner witnessing spectacles of freestyle car bashing of the sort that occur here is likely to conclude that this must be an uncivilized country not fit for decent existence. Foreign investors think twice about coming to such a country for doing business.
Car bashing and that too on a large scale has been a part of the popular culture of protest in this country for too long. Protestors claiming allegiance to different political parties are prone to attacking cars and other vehicles running on roads without the victims doing anything at all to deserve such assaults on them. We have seen orgies of car bashing during the recent hartals enforced violently by a fundamentalist religious party.
The attackers could be also showing their anger for an accident of the type indicated above. But instead of catching and submitting the offender for facing the due process of the law, the witnesses to the incident may burst forth in a riotous mood and start bashing cars right and left leaving a large number of vehicles damaged for no wrong done by their owners or drivers. Or the marchers of a political rally may start attacking cars in a similar fashion just to draw attention to their demands.
In fact attacking transports on filmiest grounds or no grounds have become like an integral part of life in Bangladesh that begs a long overdue very stern governmental and societal response to the same.
