The controversy over the display of photographs of Pakistan’s founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, and former Chhatra Sangha leader Abdul Malek at the Dhaka University Central Students’ Union (Ducsu) archive gallery escalated today, as students placed photos of Jinnah and Ghulam Azam on the floor and stepped on them.
Meanwhile, Ducsu leaders sought action against students who allegedly damaged photographs, documents and other materials in the gallery.
Ducsu General Secretary SM Farhad and other union leaders met Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Administration) Prof Dr Mohammed Almujaddade Alfasane today, as Vice-Chancellor ABM Obaidul Islam is abroad at the moment.
The leaders had gone to meet the VC to demand action against students over the alleged vandalism, along with several other demands.
The meeting came a day after the university administration warned that it would take strict administrative action if Ducsu continued carrying out activities without its approval.
In a press notification issued yesterday, the university said it had formed three separate committees to investigate Ducsu’s launch of a teacher evaluation website, installation of a memorial, and display of photographs of Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Abdul Malek at the Ducsu archive.
“The Dhaka University administration said it would strongly resist us. It seems they may have copied and pasted a BNP party post,” Farhad said at a press briefing after today’s meeting.
Farhad also questioned why the university had moved to take action over the display of the photographs while no comparable action had been taken over the alleged damage to photographs, documents and other property inside the archive.
Defending the display of Jinnah’s photograph, Farhad said it included historical statement on the state language question.
He said the same statement — in which Jinnah opposed Bangla as a state language and advocated Urdu — was discussed in school textbooks on the history of Bangladesh.
Farhad questioned why the university considered the display of the historical statement an offence when the same episode was included in textbooks.
He also questioned why the administration had issued a statement against the display without first seeking an explanation from the Ducsu leadership.
Farhad said the vice-chancellor, who is also the president of Ducsu, had visited the archive twice before its reopening and had seen the renovation work.
Meanwhile, around noon today, a group of students from the 2025-26 academic session placed photographs of Jinnah and Ghulam Azam on the floor at the entrance to and inside the Ducsu archive gallery and stepped on them.
The students said the action was a protest against the display of photographs of Jinnah and Abdul Malek in the archive.
Shibbir Ahmed, a student of the Department of History, said Ducsu Liberation War and Democratic Movement Affairs Secretary Fatima Tasnim Zuma had earlier said she displayed Jinnah’s photograph because “she wanted to”.
“As general students, we are also saying that we wanted to, so we placed the photographs of Jinnah and Ghulam Azam under our feet,” he said.
Ash Shams, a student of the Department of English for Speakers of Other Languages, said students expected elected Ducsu representatives to uphold the history and political values of Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, at a press conference, Bangladesh Chhatra Federation’s DU unit criticised the display of Jinnah’s 1948 speech at the Ducsu archive, saying it presented the speech without showing students’ protests against it.
The group said it had removed Jinnah’s photograph from the archive and put up a photograph of a public protest against former Jamaat-e-Islami chief Ghulam Azam.