The images that surfaced on online news portals, including this newspaper and social media, showing helmet wearing activists of Chhatra League attacking protesters, including girls, with various deadly weapons and sticks to break student demonstrations at several universities are deeply depressing, outrageous, and deplorable. These demonstrators were demanding reforms to the quota system in civil service recruitment, which was scrapped in 2018 following a similar protest but restored following a judicial ruling. This ruling shocked many young people. The government's appeal against the ruling suggests it also wants a change in the outcome. The latest wave of violence against the protesters follows a public pronouncement by the ruling party's general secretary, Obaidul Quader, that Chhatra League would teach a lesson to those who allegedly undermined the spirit of the war of independence. This allegation centers around distortions, selective quotations, miscommunications, and a ...