Dhaka: Bangladesh`s premier Dhaka
University has kick-started the process to revoke an expulsion
order issued 62 years ago against the country`s founding
leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
"We have decided to revoke the order to rectify an
historic wrong done in the past," when Bangladesh was part of
Pakistan, Vice-Chancellor Professor Arefin Siddiqui told agency.
He said a process was underway to withdraw the May 19,
1948 order against one of its best known students at the
University`s law faculty. It coincides with the 35th death
anniversary of Sheikh Mujib, popularly called Bangabandhu, who
led Bangladesh to independence in 1971.
The University authorities at the "behest of the
autocratic Pakistani government" had expelled Bangabandhu, a
student leader at that time for extending his active support
to a strike by class IV employees on the campus for pay hike
and better service conditions.
Mujib, who later led the country`s freedom movement,
had rejected a fine imposed on him for heading the movement on
the campus.
The decision to revoke the expulsion came amid demands
from different political and social groups for "rectification
of the historic wrong".
"We welcome the demand (and) we want to respectfully
restore his (Bangabandhu?s) rights," Siddiqui earlier told the
state-run BSS news agency, adding that by lending his support
to the demands of the employees he groomed himself as the
future leader of the Independence movement.
"His standing up against injustice even during his
student days finally saw the emergence of Bangabandhu, who
fought all his life for the political rights of the Bengalis,"
the Vice-Chancellor said.
The demand to revoke the expulsion has come from a
number of organisations and letters have been addressed to
President Zillur Rahman, who is the university`s chancellor, a
media report said.
Sheikh Mujib was gunned down at his home in a posh
Dhanmandi area, along with his wife and three sons in a coup
on August 15, 1975, hours ahead of his scheduled visit to the
University as the chancellor.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, his eldest daughter, was
abroad at the time and escaped the massacre.
PTI
