Waiting out the Riot

It turns out that we aren’t able to get a bus out of Cox’s Bazare the day after tomorrow. We kinda expected things to get a bit complicated upon leaving Dhaka the day before, as there were large police presence all over the streets. There’s a huge riot going on in Dhaka, and its feared that it might spread to other parts of the country. Therefore there is a huge nationwide curfew for big cities including our destination, Chittagong. Basically it means you get shot by the military if you are found on the street within curfew times. So our bus companies are cancelling their runs as well just not to make it difficult for themselves.

One of the burnt out buses in Dhaka -

took this picture after we travelled back through to pick up my passport

I am not completely sure on how the riot came about either. From what I can gather, police had beaten up a few Dhaka University students at a soccer match recently, and they had refused to apologise for their brutal acts, and its caused the students to fight back. But it is more of an overall dissatisfaction at the rule of the interim government after a vote of no confidence brought down the government, and they have been fairly incompetent with their rule. Apparently they have been arresting students and professors who were accused of instigating the violence – I think any country that arrests academics on mass needs to be questioned. The worse off are definitely the migrant workers and homeless people, as many of them do shift work over night/live on the streets. Now that they won’t have an income or places to be safe, a lot of them are forced to go back to their villages.

I started befriending a young boy no more than 4 or 5, who looked like he was orphaned. He hung out outside the inn we were staying at and I give him a biscuit or dahl ball or two when ever I had any with me. I made the mistake this morning of playing with him by simply just clapping hands with him. When it was time to leave on a rickshaw he wanted to come with us, but obviously we couldn't take him. It was a bit awful because he started running after us behind the rickshaw holding his arms out wanting me to take him with me, and almost hurting himself in the meantime. He was so little, and the wheels of the rickshaw were so big and travelling so fast... I tried to tell him to let go, kept saying "bye bye", he started crying because we weren't stopping and he couldn't catch up. The rickshaw sped up and he was left behind crying on the street full of people that just went about their business and no one bothered to ask him if he was alright... He's probably never had any one expressing any interest or care towards him, and to have someone who does then suddenly leave is just something really heartbreaking that I am not quite sure if I am able to live with. It left a depressing and powerless feeling in my chest. I felt so upset.