Published : 14 Sep 2026, 08:25 PM
Updated : 16 Sep 2026, 11:50 AM
Bangladesh Jatiotabadi Chhatra Dal has condemned and protested the display of a “controversial” photograph of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, at the museum of the Dhaka University Central Students’ Union (DUCSU).
The reaction came in a press release issued on Monday by Jahangir Alam, office secretary of Chhatra Dal.
Following renovations, DUCSU reopened its museum on Sunday. While the museum does not feature a prominent or standalone photograph of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the leader of Bangladesh’s independence struggle, it now includes a widely discussed photograph of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan.
Chhatra Dal said, “On Mar 21, 1948, standing at the then Racecourse Maidan (now Suhrawardy Udyan), Muhammad Ali Jinnah declared, ‘Urdu alone shall be the state language of Pakistan.’”
“The fearless students of Dhaka University immediately rose in protest against Jinnah’s extremely arrogant statement. That protest later laid the foundation for the blood we shed in the Language Movement and the great Liberation War.
“Displaying a photograph of that controversial leader at the DUCSU museum—the students’ union that was the seminal point of the movement for Bengali people to achieve their rights—is a direct insult to the legacy of the Language Movement and the Bengali struggle for independence.”
Two other photographs of Pakistan’s leader Jinnah have also been seen at the museum. One is a group photograph from the annual conference of the All-India Muslim League held in Lahore in March. 1940, in which Jinnah appears. The other is a newspaper clipping from Pakistan’s Dawn featuring a photograph of Jinnah in a report on the 1970 election.
The press release said the current DUCSU leadership has been “completely unsuccessful” in resolving the students’ housing crisis, securing their legitimate rights and creating a proper educational environment.
It said, “Without caring about the legitimate interests of students, they have turned the council into an instrument for implementing their specific political and ideological agenda.
“From the despicable attempt to change the name of Madhur Canteen to ‘Ishrat Majlis’ to installing a controversial photograph of Jinnah at the DUCSU museum—these successive actions prove that this Shibir-controlled DUCSU, abandoning the democratic aspirations of students and the university’s spirit of liberation, is demonstrating its covert affinity and ‘love for Pakistan,’ the defeated forces of 1971.”
Chhatra Dal President Rakibul Islam Rakib and General Secretary Nasir Uddin Nasir announced that they would resist all attempts to distort the historical monuments and heritage of Dhaka University, including Madhur Canteen.
In a joint statement, they said the photograph of Jinnah, who opposed the Bengali language, must be removed from the DUCSU museum immediately, and DUCSU must stop being used as a platform for promoting the ideology of any particular political group.
“Just the way the then university students roared in protest against Jinnah’s arrogant attempt to impose Urdu as the state language in 1948, Bangladesh Jatiotabadi Chhatra Dal will stand united with ordinary students against any oppressive force to protect the progressive spirit, history and heritage of the university.”
