Published : 15 Sep 2026, 11:00 PM
Updated : 16 Sep 2026, 11:50 AM
A group of students have protested the display of a photograph of Pakistan’s founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, at the Dhaka University Central Students’ Union (DUCSU) Museum by placing photographs of Jinnah and convicted war criminal Ghulam Azam on the floor and trampling them.
The protest was carried out around 2:30pm on Tuesday by 8–10 students from the 2025–26 academic session of the University of Dhaka.
One of the protesters, Wasim Uddin Rahat, said:
“Bangladesh is the country of Salam and Barkat, who shed their blood for the language. Bangladesh is a country bought with the blood of three million people. We can never tolerate giving a place at Dhaka University to someone who wanted to take away our language.”
“Ghulam Azam was a notorious Razakar. His photograph was never given a place at DUCSU. That is why we put their photographs on the ground as a symbol of hatred. They should remain under the feet of the people of this country.”
The students carried out the protest by placing two photographs on the floor in front of the entrance to the DUCSU museum and two more inside the museum.
The DUCSU museum was inaugurated on Sunday following renovations. Although the museum did not include any solo or prominent photographs of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the leader of Bangladesh’s independence movement, it did include three photographs of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan.
One of the photographs was taken at an event at the then Racecourse Ground (now Suhrawardy Udyan) on Mar 21, 1948, where Jinnah declared that “Urdu alone will be the state language of Pakistan.”
On Monday afternoon, a student named Abu Tayeb Habildar visited the DUCSU museum and tore down the three photographs of Jinnah in protest. Shortly afterward, the Bangladesh Chhatra Federation protested by placing a photograph showing war criminal Ghulam Azam being beaten with shoes at the same location inside the museum.
On Monday, the university administration formed a five-member committee, headed by Pro-Vice Chancellor (Administration) Prof Mohammed Almujaddade Alfasane, to investigate the controversial display of photographs of Pakistan’s founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Chhatra Sangha leader Abdul Malek at the DUCSU Museum.
