THE deployment of the army in aid of civil administration to contain the protests of the students who have legitimately sought reforms in civil service job reservations means that the government鈥檚 earlier employment of the ruling Awami League鈥檚 fronts Chhatra League and Juba League and the deployment of various law enforcement units, including the personnel of the Rapid Action Battalion, Ansars and the Border Guards Bangladesh, who attacked the unarmed protesters leaving more than a hundred dead in July 16鈥�19, have utterly failed to contain the student movement. The attacks by state forces that the government used on the rightful protests that have left such a large number of people dead in four days are unprecedented in that such incidents have never happened on this land but for the days during the liberation war in 1971. Media have reported the death of six on July 16, the death of at least 38 on July 18 and the death of at least 67 on July 19. We only hope that the army which is expected to protect national security and sovereignty of the country would not fire into unarmed protesters and civilians in order to support the political incumbents鈥� irrational way of solving a problem of political importance.
The army leadership should realise that the government has already pitched the great freedom fighters against the entire people by referring on July 14 to the protesters and the people who symphatise with or support them, by implication, as razakars, who collaborated with the killer Pakistani junta during the liberation war. The government is now trying to pitch the army against the people with its deployment, along with the imposition of curfew under the Special Powers Act 1974, to contain the legitimate protests forcibly which could prove counter-productive for both the country and its national army. The government, meanwhile, appears to be retaining power and gaining control over the students in their fight for legitimate demands by using every means possible. We humbly request the government not to press this any further. The government should, rather, keep off the path of coercion in resolving the issues that have cropped up, meet the demands of the students for reforms in job reservations for civil service, stop killing unarmed civilians, bring to justice who are responsible for the insane murders and, thus, restore peace. Any further delay on part of the government would compound the issue beyond reparation.