Breaking News: The culture of Breaking and Shaking in Bangladesh

Breaking News: The culture of Breaking and Shaking

Fatal accidents near campus areas spark vandalism and what starts as a protest, transforms in to mass mayhem. Faizul Khan Tanim writes on this social disease which often brings a whole city to a standstill

A common ‘breaking news’ has been: whenever a fatal accident takes place in a university campus, usually the culprit driver also known as the ‘ghatok bus/truck driver’ flees. But if he is caught somehow, it is always the police custody that saves him. Meanwhile, roads are blocked, agitated students roll on the street, and thanks to the foot soldiers of misfortune, vehicles are vandalised as if the ‘v’ of vehicles derived from the phrase ‘v for vandalism’ and what follows is ‘c for chaos’ and ‘m for mayhem’ in and around the campus areas making commuters and pedestrians in that area suffer mainly.

It seems ‘b is for breaking rules’.

Most importantly, it is citizens from the middle and low income bracket whose vehicles, be it a car or a bicycle, bought with hard earned money, which are completely demolished and set on fire and since all the roads are linked with our limited street and route infrastructure, a whole city is paralyzed.

In a recent incident, a student of University of Dhaka (DU) was killed in a road accident in city’s Shahbagh intersection.

The deceased was identified as Tawhiduzzaman Jaman, a student of International Relations Department, and resided at 208 no room of Bangabandhu Hall.

University sources said a speedy and hastily driven passenger bus Rajdhani Paribahan knocked down and critically injured Jaman when he was crossing the road to return to the campus.

Almost 50 vehicles including bus and mostly private cars, minibuses, SUVs, plus a good number of public transports including CNG auto rickshaws, rickshaws, taxi cabs were completely demolished.

And hence, a valuable question is raised – are these the ‘students’ who are going to run this country one day?

So, this reporter spoke to a student leader from the DU campus and requesting anonymity he said, “It is true that the accident sparked a protest…a violent one indeed and I do agree that we were hot-headed and reached our peaks of destruction but we vandalized mostly buses and later realized that there were other groups of people who are not university students, involved in that mass vandalism as well.”

And to my total dismay, a great number of nearby shop owners said that they have identified a lot of the absconders as nearby auto-repair shops workers or their aids.

Speaking to a commuter, Mehzeb Rahman Chowdhury, a law teacher and freelance journalist, who was a victim of this protest, otherwise a ‘public cross-fire’ situation, narrated his life-altering experience and narrow escape.

“Fear is a great motivator. Just as panic causes stampedes, chaos on the road, makes even the most level-headed person, go off the rails. On the fateful day, I was returning home to Banglamotor from Kalabagan, through Elephant Road, when my car was diverted through Hatirpool, from where, it was redirected to Paribagh. However, the on-rushing picketers from Shahbag through all the link roads from the same, caused mass hysteria and panic amongst both pedestrians and those travelling by motor vehicles. The car behind mine, probably emulating my driver, switched off the ignition, and quietly waited for the destruction to subside”.

A very emotional Chowdhury continued, “We were in front of Motaleb Plaza near Eastern Plaza at the time and the jarring smash of every glass of a nearby car shattering into a million bits, resulted not only in the dispersal of every motorized vehicle, but it also elicited a strange and sinister euphoria amongst those causing the destruction. With torches in hand, and any form of weapon usable to wreak havoc, the picketers began running after my car, throwing stones and bricks and anything they could find as if saying that I had been the one who had personally run over the student who had been tragically killed on the same night. The disparaging truth was however far from their misconception. I was caught in the crossfire, trapped within uncertainty, and being chased down by a bloodthirsty gang whose appetite could only be satisfied with blazing fire, shattered glass and dripping crimson. Three of the marathon runners amongst the group reached as far as the trunk of my car, but the panic stricken manner in which my chauffeur was trying to save the vehicle and himself, could have so easily resulted in taking the life any pedestrian who was also running for their lives in front of us. Indeed, even rickshaw-pullers were made to stop, innocent bystanders beaten up without reason, and police booths put ablaze. All for what, I did not know, until reaching Green Road, where I had to hide out, until 11:45 that night, before walking back home over layers and layers of broken glass, of broken dreams, in fact. I bled that day. The scars remain. Since then, I have not been the same way. Commotion on the street, a tire rupturing, or a group walking together – takes me back to that horrible day, panic sets in, and I do not know what to do. This psychological trauma is what I must live with for the rest of my life. Why have I been punished in this manner? I ask this everyday, but no answer is forthcoming”.

Speaking to another private service holder Ishtiaque Khan, he said, “No matter how ‘infuriating’ or ‘tragic’ a death is, it does not give the right to anyone to burn/vandalize privately owned vehicles. The owners bought them using their hard earned money, not from the tiny tuition fees paid by the students - there must be a better way of showing your ‘fury’. I demand exemplary punishment for both the bus driver who killed the student, and to the so called sympathizers who vandalized almost 50 vehicles. I am sure most of them didn’t even know the victim personally”.

Meanwhile, another resident added a very pivotal point – commuters and pedestrians do not necessarily look carefully before crossing the streets most of the time. These jaywalkers on many occasions are so engrossed in speaking on their cell phones that they don’t realize that at times, they stop vehicle movement.

In many occasions, HARD break needs to be applied because unmindful commuters ignore the yellow light and decides to stroll without seeing that a vehicle is behind or someone is taking a u-turn. And in most cases, there are NO witnesses to state the correct story.

She added, “I am not certifying that bus drivers are really good, and never break rules - but the jaywalkers are equally responsible for their own death. And yes, since there is not much rule/legal enforcement against jaywalking, breaking of road rules continues and this is a major indiscipline”.

*This article was first published in The Independent's Weekend Independent, Friday September 07, 2012 - http://www.theindependentdigital.com/index.php?opt=view&page=35&date=2012-09-07