WE WANT JUSTICE

Bangladesh Road Safety Protests 2018

The Bangladesh Road Safety Protests of 2018 were protests demanding safe roads and punish those who violate road safety laws. The protests rapidly attained popularity among students of different schools and colleges of Bangladesh.

Some of the protesters, mostly aged in their mid-teens, have been checking bus registration plates and demanding to see drivers' identity documents.

"We don't want any vehicles without licences on the streets. Those unfit to drive should not get licences, and we don't want underage motorists driving public transport," protester Mohammad Sifat told AFP.

Some vehicles have been vandalized and police armed with shields and batons have driven the protesters back in some parts of the city.

Students took to the streets for the 4th consecutive day on Wednesday demanding punishment of those responsible for Sunday's accident that killed two college students in the city and resignation of the Shipping Minister for his comments on the accident as the protest spread outside Dhaka. Around 1,500-2,000 students from around 20 colleges, including Sheikh Borhanuddin College, Dhaka College, Ideal College and Commerce College, took position at Shahbagh intersection at noon demanding capital punishment of the driver and helpers of the killer bus and resignation of Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan.

They burnt the effigy of the shipping minister and chanted slogans, 'We Want Justice'.

The students in Dhaka had placed a nine-point charter of demands for the authorities to meet. Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal on Thursday said that their demands were being met following directives from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

The protests erupted after news that a boy and a girl had been killed on on July 29, 2018, struck by a bus racing for passengers, spread quickly on social media.

Minister Shajahan Khan - who has links to transport unions - then fuelled the outrage by asking why the high school students had not reacted the same when 33 people died in a bus crash in India on Saturday. He later apologised.