It is alarming to see that at least 33 teachers, including 11 women, were injured on Thursday, with the police charging batons at them. This incident once again points to an all-too-familiar problem - we have a police force in need of serious training when it comes to understanding situations and reacting accordingly.
While we must acknowledge that doing police work is extremely difficult and challenging, especially given the state of the nation at present, there can still be little justification for the police needing to resort to physical force against peaceful protests held by teachers.
The escalation from general disregard to the use of physical force is unfortunately a trait that has long been attributed to our police force. Nowhere was this more prevalent than during the protests in July and August, when many in the police resorted to incomprehensible acts of brutality.
However, we cannot and must not accept such behaviour to be the norm from our police force.
We have identified many institutions that require reforms in our bid to rebuild our nation after the Awami League’s misrule and it is imperative that we do not ignore the need for significant reforms and change within our police force and general law enforcement as well.
The primary point here is training the personnel to have more understanding of situations and the people they are facing when on duty. Incidents such as this attack on teachers should become a relic of the past, and the general public have a right to want a police force that is, much like the government, one that understands and supports the plight of the people.
