A fresh political controversy erupted at Dhaka University on Monday after photographs of Pakistan’s founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah and former Jamaat-e-Islami chief Ghulam Azam were displayed at the renovated Dhaka University Central Students’ Union (DUCSU) museum.
The display triggered protests, with critics accusing the student wing of the hardline Jamaat-e-Islami, Islami Chhatra Shibir, of attempting to reshape the university’s historical narrative.
The photographs were torn down by student Muhammad Abu Tayab, who had contested the 2025 DUCSU election for vice-president. He was later joined by activists from the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s student wing, Bangladesh Jatiotabadi Chhatra Dal, and the left-leaning Students’ Federation of Bangladesh during a protest at the university.
“We have not forgotten 1971 or the Language Movement,” Tayab said, questioning why photographs of what he described as a “villain” should be displayed at the DUCSU museum. He also questioned whether the union’s manifesto had promised to “make Jinnah a hero”.
Protesters pointed out that the museum displayed three photographs of Jinnah but did not have a standalone photograph of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh’s founding leader.
The controversy has further fuelled debate over how Bangladesh’s turbulent political history, including the 1952 Language Movement and the 1971 Liberation War, should be represented at one of the country’s most prominent universities.
“Displaying photographs of individuals whose actions conflict with the history of the Language Movement and independence of Bangladesh within the university is entirely unacceptable,” said Farrukh Mahmud, deputy director and public relations officer of Dhaka University.
He added that strict administrative action would be taken against those responsible.
