Once again we find ourselves urging restraint and for everyone involved -- most crucially, those in law enforcement -- to do everything in their power to ensure that no further lives are lost.
Too many Bangladeshi, and most heartbreakingly of all, too many young Bangladeshis, have lost their lives in the crisis of the past few weeks. This must end. We cannot lose another life, and whatever action is taken needs to be taken with that admonition foremost in mind.
This is an unprecedented time in the history of our nation, with scores of lives lost and hundreds possibly thousands more being irreparably injured, making this the most deadly period in recent memory indeed in the lifetime of most Bangladeshis alive today.
As we have written before, the tragedy is that all the destruction and devastation that Bangladesh has been enduring since early last month could all have been avoided with just a modicum of restraint and good sense. We all know the sorry tale and we all know how we got here, and we don't mean to relitigate once again the issue here.
But we do wish to draw a line and insist that this is where it must end, at least as far as the bloodshed is concerned.
We have seen law enforcement, civilians, journalists, and above all students, the future of our nation, perish in the last three weeks. We have seen small children lose their lives in the crossfire.
And once again today, the unrest in various parts of the country has already seen multiple confirmed deaths. Every life extinguished is a blow to Bangladesh’s future, more so when they have yet to even start on their lives properly. We had hoped after the conflagration of last week had ended that at least the worst was over, that there would be no more killings. But yesterday showed that this was not the case.
With the student movement showing little signs of slowing down, we can all anticipate further protests in the coming days, and with the movement already having established that they want to protest peacefully, the onus lies on the government.
We say, as we have said before: let them protest peacefully. Do not unleash either the BCL or law enforcement onto them. This should have been what happened today, but albeit belatedly, it is never too late to do the right thing.
It is clear now that the nation stands at a precipice. We are sailing out on uncharted waters. No one knows where things will go from here or even if things can ever return to the way they were. But the one thing that we should all be able to agree on is that enough is enough: let there be no more deaths.
If tomorrow and every day after that are deathless days, then and only then is there hope that we can resolve our issues and start to heal together as a nation.