Ershad wants death sentence for killing in reckless driving

Jatiya Party chairman HM Ershad on Friday said the capital punishment can be the only trial of killing people in reckless driving, reports UNB.

"We had formulated a law keeping the provision of capital punishment for killing people in reckless driving when Jatiya Party was there in power," he said.

Ershad came up with the remarks while talking to newsmen after visiting the Mohakhali house of Diya Khanam Mim, who along with another college student died in a road crash in the city.

He said the current agitation of students is an apolitical one. "Their demands are also apolitical. They're raising the demands for survival. I extend my full support to their demonstrations."

The Jatiya Party chairman also strongly condemned the 'repression and attack' on the agitating students by police. "This attack on children can't be accepted."

About the anarchy in the transport sector, he said children of 10-12 years of age drive vehicles while the fitness of the vehicles seems unnecessary.

Ershad criticised shipping minister Shahjahan Khan for smiling while giving his reaction to the killing of two students in a road accident. "It's a shameful behaviour by a responsible minister."

He urged the police and transport workers' associations not to be violent with the demonstrating students, and demanded the government accept their justified demands.

Ershad along with his party's senior leaders went to Mim's house around 11:00am and talked to her parents and other family members and consoled them.

On Sunday, Mim and Rajib, students of the college section of Shaheed Ramiz Uddin School and College, were killed as a 'Jabal-e-Noor Paribahan' bus ploughed through some students in front of Kurmitola General Hospital on Airport Road, triggering a widespread student protest.