But, no less shocking is what followed the tragic incident. While we share the sorrow and sympathise with the feeling of the students, it is the means and methods resorted to by them to express their feeling, we find unacceptable. Their acts of destruction and disdain for order are unbecoming of an enlightened group.

The students put to torch several vehicles, damaged many more that happened to pass by after the incident, which certainly had nothing to do with the incident at all. The main highway was closed to traffic for good part of the day, causing untold misery to too many including women and children that were left stranded.

It cannot be lost site of that the Dhaka-Aricha highway is the only link between Dhaka and the west and north Bangladesh, and to have it blockaded for twelve hours is simply unacceptable.

But, what we fail to understand is the inordinate delay in the reaction of the police and the law enforcing agencies in tackling the situation. Why is it that the blockade lasted for twelve hours? What prevented the police from removing the barricade sooner?

It is not the first time that such an incident has occurred in this place. The inaction of the authorities in addressing the pedestrians' safety borders on apathy to the needs of the students of the University in particular and the common man of the area in general. Why has it not been possible to construct foot overpasses in those accident-prone points so far?

We urge upon the government to act speedily to ensure that the students' lives are not put at risk any longer. We also call upon the students to act on their part as responsible members of the society.

Sad as the event of a student's death is, it cannot justify the actions the students had resorted to.