DU Shibir blames leftists for trying to disrupt co-existence
The Dhaka University (DU) unit of the Bangladesh Islami Chhatra Shibir has accused left-leaning student organisations of trying to disrupt the peaceful, democratic, and co-existential atmosphere on the campus.
In a statement on Thursday, the student organisation also expressed a strong reaction against some slogans chanted during the recent demonstration of the leftist organisations over the acquittal of Jamaat-e-Islami leader ATM Azharul Islam.
SM Farhad Hossain, president of the DU Shibir, and Mohiuddin Khan, its secretary, issued the statement to the media. They expressed concern over what they termed 'slogans of terrorism' aimed at their organisation.
“For the past two days, we have observed that the left-leaning organisations are staging demonstrations over the acquittal of ATM Azharul Islam, the first president of Shibir’s DU unit, in a politically motivated case of so-called crimes against humanity. In a democratic country, everyone has the right to protest or voice opinions on any issue, and Chhatra Shibir fully respects this democratic principle,” the statement read.
Shibir, however, claimed that the leftist demonstrators used slogans reminiscent of the fascist rhetoric used to justify dehumanisation of Shibir members and killing them.
Terming those as ‘slogans of terrorism,’ they alleged that the slogans reflect a latent vengeful mindset of the leftists to kill the Chhatra Shibir men.
In a new Bangladesh, the students rejected the attempts to repeat the politics of killing and terrorism on the campus, it noted, mentioning that the general students shouted disapproval when the leftists went to halls with torch processions on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The students expressed grave concern about the fascist tendency of legalising the killing of students after tagging them as ‘Shibir’, while facing any rational resistance, it added.
In the statement, Shibir also said the leftist groups’ protests are inciting to destabilise the fair and democratic environment on the campus. It expressed dismay that some members of the DU unit of Chhatra Dal, which is an ally in anti-fascist movement, were seen participating in the recent processions and delivering provocative speeches.
“We would like to say that there are evil efforts from the leftists’ protests to damage the environment of fair and democratic co-existence.”
The organisation further alleged that the leftist student organisations have always shown reluctance toward holding DUCSU elections, due to lack of support and acceptability. Shibir is considering the current tension as a conspiracy to foil the impending DUCSU elections.
The students are rejecting the evil efforts to stop the ongoing progress over the DUCSU elections by creating an unstable situation, it added.