Editorial
Welcome release of teachers and students
Wish the issue had been handled with greater sensitivity
The curtain has been all but drawn on the four cases filed against DU teachers and students with their release following acquittal, grant of clemency and quashing of charges. In one of the cases, in which charges were pressed against 25 students and outsiders, 18 have been absolved with the remainder seven yet to be let off.
As for Rajshahi University, the teachers had been released earlier on through a presidential pardon with their relatives denying they had asked for it. The remaining detainee students and an employee of RU were let off through a pardon night before last.
Just when the acquittal of four teachers and 11 students was ruled by a Dhaka Court day before yesterday raising the hope of their exoneration in the second case, given an optimistic environment overall, three of them were convicted in it. They have since been released but they will take a long time living down the memory of conviction. Needless to say, people would have been happy if all of them had been released without conviction.
It is a self-evident fact that the detained teachers and students have suffered in jail for nearly five months. The outcome of the 'legal process' is a proof of their innocence. In that view of the matter, why should the government have not released the teachers and students in good time before the emotions ran high? More so because in public perception the government had been pursuing the course of a negotiated settlement which couldn't admit of any trace of angularity in the outcome.
In our last editorial we had urged the government to release the teachers and students immediately and unconditionally having regard to not only the high esteem in which the community is held in society but also the likely negative fallout of any inflexible position. We also highlighted the the glorious tradition of DU in championing the liberal and democratic aspirations of the country. Although the government could have handled the issue with greater sensitivity, the fact that they have taken a positive initiative in the overall to close the matter raises the hope that the small remnants of the issue would be cleared from the deck.
The entire nation must now be able to concentrate on the forthcoming elections and all concerned should be devoted to the sole goal of maintaining a congenial atmosphere for the polls to be held by December, if not earlier.
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