Chhatra Dal leader expelled for paying tribute to Bangabandhu on FB

The Central Committee of the Chhatra Dal, the student wing of the BNP, has expelled its Liberation War and Research Affairs Secretary Sardar Amirul Islam Sagar after he paid tribute to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in a Facebook post. The status was posted on August 15 remembering the day when Bangabandhu and most of his family members were assassinated in 1975. “Chhatra Dal President Rajib Ahsan and General Secretary Akramul Hasan took the decision as Sagar breached organisation discipline,” Abdus Sattar Patwari, office secretary of the BNP front wing, confirmed on Thursday (August 17). In his Facebook, Sagar wrote: “Humble tribute to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, one of the valiant soldiers of Bangladesh's freedom fight, on his 42nd death anniversary.” The Chhatra Dal leader faced stiff criticism from fellow party leaders and activists, prior to being expelled for the social media post paying respect to the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.However, he posted another status on his Facebook wall deleting the previous one. “I posted the status as a way of expressing political courtesy. Ziaur Rahman, Khaleda Zia and even Tarique Rahman never deviated from extending this courtesy. I should follow them,” said the shocked Chhatra Dal leader, Sagar, in his new Facebook post. He also added: “I removed the previous status out of respect to my fellow leaders and activists who were hurt by the post. No autocrat or autocratic government will be spared, but there should be no individual conflict.” A fraction of Chhatra League thinks that the order expelling Sagar went against the grain of party Chairwoman Khaleda Zia’s directives in this regard. In her speech during the BNP Council on March 19, 2016, Khaleda Zia said: “I remember the contribution of Sher-e-Bangla AK Fazlul Huq, Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and other national leaders. Their movements paved the way for the independence of Bangladesh.”The article was first published on Bangla Tribune