Teachers, students and employees of Dhaka University will wear black badges today marking the anniversary of the August 2007 campus protests and in protest against repression.
The university authorities decided to observe August 23 as ‘black day’ protesting at the wholesale arrest of students and teachers of the university after the August 20–23, 2007 campus protests.
The university authorities will hold a discussion at the university Teachers-Students Centre at 11:00am. The university teachers’ association members will wear black badges and hold a discussion at the University Club at 4:00pm.
The August campus protests flared off the assault of some students by some army men in the university playground during a football match between two departments on August 20, 2007. Two university teachers were also assaulted by the army men of the temporary camp housed at the gymnasium. The protests later flared up elsewhere, including major educational institutions in Dhaka and across the country.
The association’s general secretary Anwar Hossain and executive committee member Harun-ur-Rashid were arrested on August 23, 2007.
The association’s president Sadrul Amin and Neem Chandra Bhowmick and a number of students were also arrested later.
The Progressive Students Alliance on Sunday brought out a procession paying tribute to the participants in the 2007 campus protests.
The Bangladesh Chhatra Union also brought out a procession marking the occasion. Addressing a rally at Dhaka University, the organisation president Manabednra Dev said the 2007 student protests proved that the students in Bangladesh had never tolerated any oppression.
The Students Alliance against Imperialism organised an exhibition of photographs and newspaper clippings on the 2007 movement on the Dhaka University campus on Sunday. The Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal-backed Chhatra League also held a rally on the occasion.
The Samajtantrik Chhatra Front observed the day with a rally on the campus demanding withdrawal of the case against seven students, punishment of the people who carried out repression against the students, and publication of the reports of all inquiry committees, including the judicial commission, on the incident.
