He was standing beside the auto-rickshaw on the left to ours at the set of lights at Sonargaon intersection between Sonargaon and Bangla Motor crossroads. The half-naked man wearing just a pair of shorts and a bag in his hands was yelling at someone inside the auto-rickshaw.

Being from Dhaka city I have learnt to ignore a lot of things happening all around while travelling. I hugged my six-days-short four-month-old daughter tighter and looked out the cage of the auto-rickshaw.

But my wife to my left began saying, “Oh Allah, oh Allah, oh Allah, save us.” I looked at her but could not figure out what was wrong. She looked at me, grabbed my left arm and again said, “Oh Allah, oh Allah, oh Allah, save us.”

I was still clueless as to what was wrong.

I looked at the auto-rickshaw driver who just spat in his own vehicle.

Then it hit me. Rather it hit my nose. The vehicle was overwhelmed by the stench of faeces. So strong was the stench that my stomach wanted to come out through my mouth.  

I finally realised what was going on. The man yelling at the passengers next to our auto-rickshaw was holding faeces in his hands and threatening to hurl it inside unless they gave him everything they had on them.

I hugged my daughter even tighter and tried not to puke and prayed, “God help me today… I have nothing to protect my family with … have mercy.”

I knew if the man turned around and threatened us, I would be helpless. I would not be able to protect my family, a job nature probably bestowed on me.

Eventually, the half-naked man took everything from the passengers in the auto-rickshaw to our left and ran, leaving us with a sigh of relief and the strong stench of faecal matter.

We the people of Dhaka endure a lot of things. We put ourselves in auto-rickshaw cages when we travel because the law enforcers can't put the muggers and snatchers inside cages. We line the ceiling of auto-rickshaw hoods so that our phones can't be taken away by snatchers cutting through the fabric.

The question now is what do we do with poop terrorism?

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