"As the tables turn"

I was a bit surprised by the above writing of Mr. Adnan R Amin published in TDS on September 17, 2015. He eulogised the student movement against VAT on tuition fees of private universities as non-violent. I wonder, how? If you hold somebody by the throat and stop his flow of blood to the brain, would you call that non-violent? Students occupied the main arteries of Dhaka city for three consecutive days taking people hostage by stopping their movements.

                Consider the sufferings of the people mentioned here: patients whose movements to the hospitals were stopped for hours, passengers to the Dhaka airport who missed their flights and thereby missed business and social commitments and of course, inconvenience for commuters to reach their workplace. Consider the perils of women who were on the move. And you call it non-violent!

Bazlur Rahman,  Uttara, Dhaka