The Dhaka University authorities have recently set up a trust fund named after a former vice-chancellor who had to resign for torturing female students 13 years ago.
Several former students and teachers have lodged a protest after the matter was disclosed in the latest issue of the university newsletter, Dhaka Bishwabidyalaya Barta, published on August 15.
The newsletter also published a happy photograph of a ceremony in which a bank cheque was being handed over to the university authorities for setting up the fund.
Both disputed former VC Prof Anwarullah Chowdhury and current VC Prof AAMS Arefin Siddique were present at the ceremony among some of the other top officials of the university administration.
Prof Anwarullah resigned on August 1, 2002 in the face of a massive student movement following an assault on female students by male police members in the middle of the night on July 23 of that year.
Allegations have it that the former VC and some top officials of the then BNP-Jamaat-led government instructed the policemen to swoop on the female students, who were protesting the illegal stay of political activists in the university dormitories.
According to reports published by various newspapers at that time, more than 200 female students were injured on that night. In the following days, around 500 male and female students, five teachers, and 10 journalists were injured in police attack while they were protesting the assault.
In the face of a strong protest that went for about a week, the VC and then proctor Nazrul Islam stepped down. However, none of the policemen who attacked the students or those who gave them instructions have been punished as yet.
According to the university newsletter, Prof Anwarullah’s son Mitul Anwar Chowdhury handed over a cheque of Tk6 lakh to DU Treasurer Prof Md Kamal Uddin on August 5 this year at the vice-chancellor’s office for setting up the “Prof Dr Anwarullah Chowdhury Trust Fund.”
The bank income generated by this donation will be used every year to give stipends to the highest scorers in the BSS (Honours) final examination of the anthropology department. This fund will also be used to award the “Prof Dr Anwarullah Chowdhury Gold Medal” to the topper of masters final examination of the same department.
Manabendra Dev, who took part in the 2002 protests, told the Dhaka Tribune: “This is a shame. The current students should know what had happed at that time and then decide whether they would accept this fund.”
The Dhaka Tribune also contacted DU Professor of biochemistry Dr Anwar Hossain, also a former VC of the Jahangirnagar University, but he refused to make any comments on this. At that time, Prof Anwar took part in the protests and was injured in police attack.
Every year since that incident, DU students have been remembering the “black night” demanding punishment for those who attacked the female students.