Desk Report
The incident happened in front of a school on Tuesday in Dhaka’s Mirpur, reports Asian Age. A video post by traffic police sergeant Jhoton Shikder shows argument with a woman sitting at a parked black car. The police man says: “Why are you making people suffer parking illegally? Answer this.”
“Do you know who I am, or whose car it is?” with sheer anger, the woman shouted. “Do you have any idea about whose car you are taking snap? Don’t show too much. I know how much you people… like a traffic sergeant get per month…We are the Prime Minister’s men…My father is a parliamentarian, MP,” the agitated lady also heard saying in the video. In reply, the traffic police man said: “I’m a servant with poor salary…” “Yes, you are a bloody servant,” the woman goes on. The video posted by Jhoton Shikder has been drawing huge flak since posted on Tuesday. Nearly 12,000 people shared the footage during 20 hours with some 5,000 comments. Most of the Facebook users harshly criticized the lady and how she showed her political power. One Sheikh Safiullah wrote: “Arrest the lady. She is selling the image of the ruling Awami League.” “Don’t they feel ashamed while the students recently demonstrated what is called traffic order,” another Samia Arin came down hard on the so-called ‘powerful’ traffic violator. BBC Bangla reached the police man. Quoting him, it reported that as previously he had bitter experiences, he decided to shoot the whole argument for proof.
“Her illegally parked vehicle prompted severe traffic jam. I politely asked her to move the car away. Instead of, she began to shout at me,” said the traffic sergeant.
He was asked whether the social media outburst put his job at risk. “A high-up of my department called me to hear the incident,” he said. The traffic sergeant said he does not regret for shooting the video even breaching the personal privacy rule. “I only care about the judgment public makes,” he concluded.