Published: 01:23 AM, 15 September 2026
Chhatra Dal blames Shibir for promoting ‘Pakistan Romance’
Bangladesh JatiyatabadiChhatra Dal has condemned and protested the display of a controversial photograph of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, at the Dhaka University Central Students' Union (DUCSU) museum.
The reaction was expressed in a press release issued on Monday by Jahangir Alam, office secretary of Chhatra Dal. Chhatra Dal has termed this phenomenon as IslamiChhatraShibir's "Pakistan Romance".
DUCSU reopened its museum on Sunday after renovations. The museum reportedly does not contain a prominent or standalone photograph of Bangabandhu Sheikh MujiburRahman, the leader of Bangladesh's independence struggle, while a widely discussed photograph of Pakistan's founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah has been newly added. Chhatra Dal said, "On March 21, 1948, standing at the then Racecourse Maidan (now SuhrawardyUdyan), Muhammad Ali Jinnah declared that 'Urdu alone will be the state language of Pakistan.' "The fearless students of the then University of Dhaka immediately raised their voices and protested against Jinnah's extremely arrogant statement. That protest eventually laid the foundation for our bloody Language Movement and the great Liberation War.
"Displaying a photograph of that controversial leader in the DUCSU museum, which is located at the birthplace of the Bengali autonomy movement, is a direct insult to the heritage of the Language Movement and the independence struggle."
Two other photographs of Pakistan's leader Muhammad Ali Jinnah have also been found in 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 the Pakistani newspaper Dawn concerning the 1970 election that contains a photograph of Jinnah.
The statement also claimed that the current DUCSU leadership has been "completely unsuccessful" in addressing students' housing crisis, securing their legitimate rights and ensuring a proper educational environment.
"Without paying any attention to the legitimate interests of students, they have turned the council into an instrument for implementing their own specific political and ideological agenda," the statement said.
"From the disgraceful attempt to change the name of Madhur Canteen to 'IshratMajlis' to placing Jinnah's controversial photograph in the DUCSU museum, these continuous activities demonstrate that this Shibir-controlled DUCSU council is abandoning the democratic aspirations of students and the university's liberation-oriented spirit in order to express its implicit sympathy and 'love for Pakistan,' the defeated force of 1971."
Chhatra Dal President Rakibul Islam Rakib and General Secretary NasirUddinNasir have announced that they will resist all attempts to distort the historical monuments and heritage of the University of Dhaka, including Madhur Canteen.
In a joint statement, they said that the photograph of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who opposed the Bengali language, must be removed from the DUCSU museum immediately and that DUCSU must stop being used as a place for promoting the ideology of any particular political group.
"In 1948, the student community of the university rose up in protest against Jinnah's arrogant statement seeking to impose Urdu as the state language. In the same way, Bangladesh Chhatra Dal, together with ordinary students, will build united resistance against any force seeking to undermine the progressive spirit, history and heritage of the university," the statement said.
