Both the unconscionable violence perpetrated by extremist groups affiliated with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, as well as the opaque and corrupt bureaucracy of the ruling Awami League government that is affiliated with western banks and corporations, have endangered everyday people who are now caught up in a dirty political rivalry.

Both parties indulge in convenient rhetoric about democracy, freedom, and human rights... but how useful is any ideology to a burn victim suffering in a hospital bed? Where is democracy when the people it purports to represent end up dying as the result of simply riding a bus to work? 

One of the victims recovering in the Dhaka Medical Burn Unit said: “Shame on our dirty politics, where power is more important than the welfare of the people. Here in Bangladesh, the people are puppets in the hands of politicians."