We are absolutely confounded at the Road Transport and Bridges Ministry's reaction to a recent report by Jatri Kalyan Samity which found that both the number of road accidents and of related deaths saw a rise during the Eid holidays. The platform found, through investigating news reports, that at least 339 people were killed and 1,265 injured in around 277 road accidents between June 11 and 23, during Eid journeys. Instead of taking the report as an aid to what the government can focus on so that our roads can be made safer, the ministry's press statement outright rejected the findings on the grounds that the organisation in question is apparently unregistered.

It baffles us as to how the registration (or lack of it) has anything to do with the facts on the ground. The matter is one of public importance, and any platform has every right to put forward their findings. And the organisation has claimed that it is registered with the Department of Social Welfare and that there are attempts to cancel the registration.

The ministry has also claimed that the organisation has presented "confusing information" to mislead the public. If the ministry has any questions regarding the validity of the findings, it can challenge the methodology. The ministry's statement claimed that the number of people killed is actually 152. Even if that were the correct figure, it is a matter of grave concern.

Only this June 23, in one day, 52 people were killed in road accidents. Given the gravity of the situation, our prime minister issued a set of directives aimed at tackling this epidemic. So the ministry's defensive position simply will not wash. We cannot reach our SDG target of reducing the number of road accidents by half if we are unwilling to even acknowledge the extent of the problem. We hope to see that the ministry steps up its effort to implement the PM's directives and the rule of law, instead of resorting to these defensive postures.