I have written before on the mindless road accidents which I call “murders” as they can be stopped. What we call “accidents” are few, but the latest deaths of two children are unacceptable and nothing but murder.
Earlier on Sunday, Diya Khanam Mim and Abdul Karim Raji accidentally came under the wheels of a speeding bus in front of Kurmitola General Hospital in Dhaka’s Airport Road.
One must understand how deeply the accident had affected common people, school children took to the streets.
Children from the Shaheed Ramiz Uddin Cantonment College along with pupils from other schools and colleges including BAF Shaheen College, Kurmitola, Government Science College, Nawab Habibullah Model School & College, Bangabandhu College and Banani Bidya Niketan School and College, joined a road blockade expressing solidarity with the institution to which the two students belonged.
It led to a traffic chaos for hours until police intervened, but must we go on with these murders forever? Can we not find an answer? Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, concerned with these killings, gave one solution --- long distance buses must have two drivers so that they can drive in turns after resting for five hours at least.
Why accidents continue to cost one precious life after another, with families of the victims reconciled to the fact that justice will never come for them as bus owners, drivers and helpers along with corrupt policemen have Godfathers protecting them. How sad, the general law abiding people do not get the justice they so richly deserve in a civilised society.
When my former driver Selim Bepari was killed by a fast moving SUV driven by a son of a Member of Parliament, I was saddened so much and felt a wrench in my heart to know a good man had lost his life in the hands of someone who broke the law. Selim’s family decided wisely to settle the matter out of court as there is usually “no point fighting powerful people in court with police in their favour. This means the court will have no choice but to give verdict in the favour of the law breaker.”
But that is not a solution. Alternative dispute resolution formulae may be good for other issues, but not murders.
Bus owners want to earn more money and thus the drivers drive recklessly to earn the day’s deposit money and then earn extra for their fun time – alcohol and sex mainly, I am told. They must also earn the extra to pay off policemen who wait like hounds to get their extra bit, despite good wages they get now from the government.
We have written to officials suggesting ways to tackle the problem, but if concerned ministers and officials also seek the extra money then there is no point asking for justice or to push for plans to end such murders.
We must enact tougher laws and implement them, sack incompetent ministers and officials and take to task those who take bribes. Sometimes, policemen are helpless because they get telephone calls to release an offender. Let this culture of phone calls end and made a punishable offence. Because, we must remember at the end of the day the prime minister is made responsible and maligned by odd comments. Let us not allow this and also make sure we end the murders.
BRTA who issue driving licenses has improved in terms of taking proper tests of drivers, but many make it still with bribes with the help of middlemen who now operate discreetly. We must take immediate steps to end such corruption.
Sack those responsible who are not doing their jobs.
May the little angels, Diya and Abdul, rest in heaven in eternal peace as we try to be humane giving up greed as well as the habit of breaking laws.

Nadeem Qadir is the Roving Editor at The Asian Age and a UN Dag Hammarskjöld fellow.