On 29th of July a speeding bus killed two students of Shaheed Romijuddin Cantonment College in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh who were waiting for a bus in front of their campus. Road safety has always been very poor in the country for a long time.
The incident sparked a nationwide protest demanding road safety in Dhaka and all of Bangladesh. High school students blocked the main intersections and roads of Dhaka and other cities across the country. They essentially took the responsibilities of traffic sergeants during the protest and forced all vehicles to follow lanes, made pedestrians who tried to cross the roads dangerously use overpasses properly, as well as creating an emergency lane for ambulances in major roads.
The protest gradually stopped after the Prime Minister of Bangladesh sheikh hasina assuring the student’s justice to the ones killed by the bus. But incidents of attack on students during protests and in some private universities, a photojournalist being hacked on street as well as several allegations of protestors being kidnapped raised some serious questions about how the government tackled the issue as well as the very limited rights of mass media during the protest.
I was on the streets of Mirpur on 4th and 5th of August to document the protest as an amateur photojournalist. These photos show some of the moments during the protest.
