BCL calls off protests against DU VC Arefin Sidddiue over souvenir gaffe

The Awami League’s student wing has called off agitations for the resignation of Dhaka University’s Vice Chancellor AAMS Arefin Siddique.

Dhaka University Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 1 July 2016, 08:54 PM
Updated : 1 July 2016, 08:54 PM

The leaders of the Bangladesh Chhatra League made the announcement on Friday night after meeting the VC, whom they held accountable for a piece in the university’s anniversary souvenir which contained distorted facts about the country's history. 

“The wrong facts were put in the souvenir to disrespect the founding father, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who forms the foundation of our ideals,” said Chhatra League president Saifur Rahman Sohag, who called off the five-hour siege on the vice-chancellor’s residence. 

“We have spoken to the VC. He told us the registrar Syed Rezaur Rahman, the author responsible, has been sacked. An investigation will be launched to find the others responsible.”

The Chhatra League’s protests were not against VC Arefin, said the league’s general secretary Zakir Hossain. “We were protesting against those who presented bogus facts about Bangabandhu and the Liberation War.”

More than a hundred activists were holding demonstrations outside when the BCL leaders unlocked the gate to the VC’s bungalow to enter there for talks. They chanted slogans saying the VC Arefin was a ‘Razakar’, that is, a traitor against liberation.

Around an hour later the BCL leaders came out to make the announcement.

Al Hasan, who heads the DU’s BCL unit, told bdnews24.com that the vice chancellor, as administrative chief, cannot avoid responsibility for the error in the souvenir.

“This is why we demand resignation of all those who were involved in its publication including the VC.”

Acting registrar Syed Rezaur Rahman, was responsible for the publication of the 95th Dhaka University Day souvenir, which described military dictator Ziaur Rahman as Bangladesh’s first president.

The VC ordered ‘confiscation’ of the souvenir’s copies when on Friday, during a discussion to mark the university’s anniversary, a speaker pointed out the distortion of the country’s history in the article.

The article says, “Ziaur Rahman became the president of Bangladesh on Apr 21, 1977 after the Liberation War and was killed in a military coup on May 30, 1981.

It describes first president Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as “one of the main leaders of Bangladesh (who) was at the forefront in the struggle to carve out Bangladesh from East Pakistan and is considered the Father of the Nation.