Bangladesh Islami Chhatra Shibir marked “Terrorism Resistance Day” at Dhaka University on 17 July with a “Catch the League” marathon and a three-day photo exhibition titled “July in Blood,” recalling the expulsion of the Chhatra League from the DU campus on 17 July 2024. The day’s programme began with the marathon on campus at 6am on Friday, joined by students from various departments and residential halls, on a route from Curzon Hall through the Central Shaheed Minar, TSC, the gate, Mohsin Hall and Surya Sen Hall to the Arts Building. At 8am the three-day exhibition was formally opened at the university’s Batatala, running 17-19 July.
DUCSU vice-president Sadiq Kayem opened the exhibition. Also present were Islami Chhatra Shibir central publicity secretary and DUCSU general secretary SM Farhad, DUCSU transport secretary and Shibir central international secretary Asif Abdullah, DU-unit Shibir secretary Kazi Ashiq and organising secretary Mu Sajjad Hossain Khan, among others. Speakers stressed preserving the memory of the July movement, presenting the history of the martyrs’ sacrifice to the new generation and holding on to the movement’s spirit. Sadiq Kayem said students had begun a “new independence” by driving the “terrorist organisation” Chhatra League from campus on 17 July, culminating in the fall of fascism on 5 August, and that there was no alternative to implementing the July Charter to secure justice for the July martyrs and build the Bangladesh they aspired to. He said the July movement was not merely a student movement but an important chapter in the struggle for democracy, justice and people’s rights, and that keeping that history alive was the current generation’s responsibility.
SM Farhad said there were various conspiracies to erase the memory of the July uprising from the public sphere and that some sought to re-establish the fascist narrative, so the participation of all classes and professions in July and the history of fascist oppression must be brought again and again into public view. DU-unit Shibir secretary Kazi Ashiq said the “July in Blood” exhibition had been arranged to preserve the memory of more than two thousand martyrs and countless survivors, featuring recollections of the July martyrs, photographs, documents of oppression under fascist rule, movement memorabilia, revolutionary songs and cultural performances. He said the programme would run through 19 July and invited all students, teachers and citizens to visit; organisers said the exhibition would be open daily with cultural performances and remembrance sessions.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report