Teachers Network demands DU proctor’s resignation over display of war criminals’ photos

Displaying the photographs of convicted war criminals at an exhibition at the Teacher-Student Centre (TSC) of Dhaka University is an incident of “detestable ill attempt to devalue the martyrs of 1971”, and a “huge insult to the millions who died in 1971 and to the recent July protests”.

The Dhaka University Teachers Network said this in a statement on Wednesday. They also demanded the resignation of the Dhaka University proctor.

In the statement, the teachers’ network further says it believes that showing photos of these war criminals, who collaborated the Pakistani army and were found guilty of genocide in 1971, is a “purposeful effort to place the Liberation War of ‘71 against the student movement of ‘24”.

The statement also says that celebrating the July protests by displaying photos of war criminals, who were found guilty of killing teachers, students, and staff at Dhaka University, is very shameful. The teachers’ network pointed out that even if there were some problems with process of trial of the war criminals, their guilt for the 1971 genocide is unquestionable.

The Dhaka University Teachers Network alleged that despite a huge protest on social media, the university authorities, especially the Proctor’s Office, did not take any step in this regard. Later, after a few student organisations protested, the proctorial team slowly removed the photos. However, some videos show that while the photos were being taken down, a few people tried to cause trouble and spread the idea that the incident was a “mob action by students”.

The statement further said, during the student protests, a person was secretly taking videos of female students inappropriately. When other students noticed this, they took his phone. Later, the university authorities identified the person as an active member of the Islami Chhatra Shibir’s Chaumuhani Kachua group.

The teachers’ network raised questions about how an outsider managed to enter the campus, especially since outsiders were banned from entering the Dhaka University campus on 5 August.

The statement also mentioned previous incidents, saying that due to the administration’s laxity over the past year, several events have recurred. These include the murders of Tofazzal and Samya, the removal of a Sheikh Hasina’s graffiti, burning a motif at Fine Arts department, and a failure to address allegations of sexual harassment.

To fix these issues, the organisation has made five main demands. Those are: Islami Chhatra Shibir must seek apology for the incident and promise not to try to rehabilitate war criminals in the future; the university administration must apologise and issue clear directives to prevent such incidents from happening again; the proctor must resign as he couldn’t carry out his job properly during several incidents of disciplinary breach over the past year; the people and organisations involved with harassing women using the internet must be punished; and the university must take permanent steps to spread the history of the Liberation War on campus and protect memorials for the martyrs, such as “Smriti Chirantan”.