Dhaka, Wednesday, August 5, 2009 - 1:25am Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) yesterday staged a demonstration on Dhaka University (DU) campus protesting the damage of a mural of Shahid President Ziaur Rahman at the Bangabondhu National Stadium on Monday midnight.
At about 12 pm, JCD leaders and activists brought out a procession from Madhur Canteen that marched several streets on the campus. After the procession they held a rally in front of the central library and demanded restoration of the mural and immediate punishment of those responsible for the incident.
JCD alleged that the ruling party activists had damaged the mural of Ziaur Rahman and said that the government was not willing to stop such kind of malpractices, as they did not take any action against recent incidents. JCD president Sultan Salahuddin Tuku, and general secretary Amirul Islam Khan Alim and DU unit JCD convenor Abdul Matin led the rally.
Zia's mural dislodged
The Indepedent: A group of unidentified people dislodged the mural of late president Ziaur Rahman at Bangabandhu National Stadium in the early hours of yesterday.
According to sources, a group of 15 to 16 unidentified people equipped with hammers entered the national stadium at about 12.30 am yesterday and started removing the mural.
"We saw around 15 to 16 persons entering the stadium at about 12.30 am and removing the late president Ziaur Rahman's mural located on the left side of Bangabandhu's mural at the stadium's entrance," a shopowner of the stadium market said requesting not to be named. He said like him many shopowners at the stadium watched the dislodging but remained silent spectators.
"No official of the national stadium prevented them from displacing the mural. They came and destroyed the mural of late president Ziaur Rahman. Later they threw away remnants of the mural and left the scene without any hindrance," eyewitnesses said.
When contacted, officials of the National Sports Council (NSC), the regulatory body of the national stadium, said they could not say anything about the incident as they were not on duty at night.
The NSC secretary declined to comment on the issue.
Officer-in-charge of Paltan police station, Mujibur Rahman said he knew nothing about the incident.
"I just came to know of the incident by watching television news and from journalists. However, none came to us in connection with the incident," the OC said.
"In order to erase the name of late president Ziaur Rahman from the country's history in a planned way, the mural was damaged. It is not a democratic attitude. On the other hand, the government and the law enforcers are yet to make their stand on the incident clear," BNP secretary general Khandker Delwar said while talking to reporters at the BNP's central office at Paltan in the city.
Terming the incident autocratic, he said not only have they damaged the mural of Ziaur Rahman at the national stadium, they also damaged Zia's and Begum Zia's murals in different educational institutions across the country. He said people of the country now had started to realise that, this government would erase all names other than those of the Awami League and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
He said nobody denies the contribution of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. "We also recognise Sheikh Mujib's contribution," Delwar said.
When reminded that during the BNP's rule many murals of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman were damaged, Delwar said it is an undemocratic culture and attitude.
Such trend should be stopped, he added.
"We all should shun the path of such undemocratic culture. If we don't shun such bad culture, what can the people expect from us?" he said.
Zia’s murals defaced at Bangbandhu Stadium
The New Age: Unnamed people defaced two portraits, in mural, of the late president Ziaur Rahman installed at the Bangabandhu National Stadium early Tuesday. Witnesses said a group of day-labourers were deployed to dismantle the murals — one at Gate 1 of the stadium and the other by the torch on the Paltan end of the stadium. The labourers said they were hired by some people who instructed them to dismantle the murals using drill machines. They failed to name their employers or even give there whereabouts.
The murals were installed beside two other portraits, in murals, of the country’s founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Mujib’s portraits remained untouched. None of the senior officials of the National Sports Council, which owns the stadium, was available for comments on Tuesday. The stadium administrator, Jahangir Alam, told reporters the murals were removed at the instruction of National Sports Council officials. Asked whether the six guards had put up any resistance, Jahangir said, ‘Only the council can explain the matter.’
Assistant commissioner of the Motijheel zone police Khandakar Mahid Uddin also failed to identify the people who ordered the labourers to deface the portraits.
The incident took place only a few days after the state minister for youth and sports, Ahad Ali Sarkar, had said portraits of none but the person the stadium is named after would be in the stadium. The defacement of the portraits sparked off protests in the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its associate organisations. The BNP on Tuesday accused the government of damaging the mural of the late president Ziaur Rahman at the Bangabandhu National Stadium at night and said it was the manifestation of autocratic attitude of the government. The party’s secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain said Zia’s murals were damaged at the instigation of the government and demanded reinstatement of the murals.
‘They are damaging the murals of Ziaur Rahman and Khaleda Zia one after another to wipe out their names from history. Despite such attempts, they could not be wiped out from the hearts of the people,’ Delwar said at the party’s central office.
‘The Awami League does not want to allow the names of anyone but Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s to remain. The position of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman has already been fixed in the history. He is rather being demeaned by such mean activities,’ Delwar said.
Delwar also feared the portrait of the Ziaur Rahman at Bangabhaban might be damaged. The party’s associate body of youths Jatiyatabadi Juba Dal held a rally in front of the BNP’s central office condemning the act. The Juba Dal president, Barkatullah Bulu, the general secretary, Syed Moazzem Hossain Alal, and central leaders Mia Muhammad Selim, Khairul Kabir Khokan and Abdus Salam Azad also addressed the rally. They said they would go out on demonstrations in district headquarters on August 8 denouncing the damage done to Zia’s murals and demand withdrawal of the case filed against its former general secretary Gayeshwar Chandra Roy.
Activists of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, the BNP’s associate body of students, went out on demonstrations at Dhaka University denouncing the damage of the murals.
They brought out a procession and held a rally at Aparajeya Bangla and leaders at the rally said the government was directly involved in the incident. They said that Chhatra Dal activists would not tolerate the humiliation done to the BNP founder who had ‘proclaimed the country’s independence.’ They threatened movements against the government if the murals were not reinstated and the people involved in the incident were not called to justice. Chhatra Dal will also go out on demonstrations in all the cities today.
More:
-The Daily star: Zia murals gone from BNS
-New Age: Zia’s murals defaced at Bangbandhu Stadium
