letters@thedailystar.net

The Daily Star's headline on July 23 (Justice Delayed, not Denied), it struck me that this is not a time of celebration but one of introspection. What has happened to us as a society and as a nation is that we harbour such repulsive creatures in our midst who would stoop to such abysmal depths to adulterate and poison children's medications. In order to satisfy their greed, these pharmaceutical manufacturers wilfully prepared poisonous concoctions, allowing innocent and trusting parents to administer these to their ailing children who only wanted to get better.

It has been reported that 2,700 children died as a result of taking the poisonous medicines. To think that these individuals in the current case got only ten years' imprisonment, for what amounts to mass murder, is astonishing. And to think that many of them got off with a slap on the wrist, or entirely scot-free because they had political connections. What kind of politician will let child-killers off the hook, and for what reason?

However, on a daily basis we also see the sheer lack of concern of business people in adulterating foodstuffs with formalin, bleaches and sundry poisonous chemicals to make fruits riper, and to make foods appear fresher and more attractive. The toll on human life and health is incalculable.

SyedHamdeAli

The Nawab Palace

Bogra