Nirab killers must face justice

The killing of a  youth in his twenties named Nirab Ahmed by workers of a filling station in Jhenidah over a quarrel is indeed shocking.  As reports go, Nirab, with two of his friends went to a filling station in Jhenidah town to  buy fuel for his motorbike on Saturday evening. The filling station workers reportedly refused to sell petroleum resulting in the deadly row that took the life of Nirab Ahmed. Just to think of the mindlessness of the filling station workers who could beat a customer with sticks to death following a heated argument over the sale of petroleum! What was reported in the online version of some newspapers is intriguing. For though the petrol pump workers refused to sell fuel to Nirab, they  were at the same time found filling bottles with petroleum for reasons best known to them.  The deadly violence erupted after Nirab questioned their activities. The Jhenidah police, who have reportedly  taken three of the filling station workers into custody, should investigate what led the petrol pump operators to turn so violent as to kill Nirab who was a well-known student leader of Jhenidah   as he was in the forefront of the July uprising of 2024. 

According to Saidur Rahman, convener of the Jhenidah District 'Students Against Discrimination (SAD)', Nirab was a frontline worker during the   uprising. In that case, the police should probe the matter with due seriousness. Most importantly, the killers of Nirab Ahmed must face the justice they deserve. The incidents of ransacking some filling stations and setting fire to buses by some enraged people after Nirab's killing are definitely not acceptable. In this connection,  the burning of some buses following Nirab's death no doubt demands investigation. But the transport workers' stopping movement of all buses on the Jhenidah-Dhaka highway in protest does not also seem right and that is for the simple reason that they have earned the notoriety of  going  violent at the slightest provocation and venting all their fury on innocent passengers. Why making the interdistrict passengers suffer over some local skirmishes?  Worse, some quarters are reported to have pointed the finger at the members of SAD for the ransacking of filling stations and setting fire to buses. Jhenidah police, too, reportedly blamed the SAD members for ransacking a particular filling station. This is unfortunate. It is expected that any member of the law-enforcement agency would accuse somebody of an offence only through due process of law. 

It appears, the case of Nirab's killing is being  diverted through raising other issues more forcefully than they merit. In this connection, the law-enforcers must ensure that killers of SAD leader Nirab Ahmed may not evade justice. What strikes one in this connection is that the leaders of the 'Students Against Discrimination (SAD)' whose sacrifices are legendary are about to be forgotten within such a short span of time. Even the style of reporting in Bengali that used the word 'pituni' as the cause of Nirab's death  in the online version of some papers can mislead readers. But what happened at Jhenidah filling station on Saturday evening is outragrous and demand widespread condemnation. It is noteworthy that the killing of Nirab took place as he was questioning stealing of petroleum at a filling station when the government is rationing fuel purchase amid worldwide concern over stoppage of fuel shipment through the Srait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf.  Fuel sales on Saturday were reportedly halted at  28 out of 33  filling stations in Jhenidah. Obviously, that caused a lot of public suffering and the filling station owners definitely owe an explanation as to why it was necessary. Unfortunately, the general  public are always at the mercy of powerful quarters. The spirit of the anti-discrimination movement was to fight for the cause of the underdog.  Is then the cause that SAD fought for losing its appeal?

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