DU black day

# Dubir_black_day_ 23 august

Today is the black day of Dhaka University (DU). On the afternoon of 20 August 2006, a football match was being played between the students of the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism and the Department of Public Administration at the Central Playground of Dhaka University. Unpleasant incidents took place between the students and army members present at the center of the game.

The army personnel present on the playground brutally tortured the students. In protest, Professor Mobasher Monem of the Public Administration Department was physically assaulted by members of the army. When the incident spread on the campus, the students erupted in protest and demonstration. The students demanded an apology from the army members. But the army did not accept it. Later, exemplary punishment was demanded for the army officers involved in the incident, including the withdrawal of the army camp from the university campus.

In such a situation, students of all levels of the university took to the streets on August 21 to protest the torture. Spontaneously they continue to protest on the university campus. Then the police attacked them. The campus including Nilkhet, TSC, Curzon Hall area became a battlefield. Hundreds of students were injured by police tear shells and rubber bullets. In the face of the movement, the army was forced to remove the camp from the physical education center of the university.

On 22 August this movement spread to educational institutions all over the country. Rickshaw puller Anwar was shot dead by police in Rajshahi. As the situation escalated, the then army-caretaker government imposed a curfew in the divisional cities on August 22. On the same evening, the residential students of DU were instructed to leave the hall. Later, on the night of August 23, university teachers Professor Anwar Hossain and Professor Harun-ur-Rashid were arrested. They were blindfolded and taken to an unknown place. Besides, Rajshahi University teachers Saidur Rahman Khan, Abdus Sobhan, Malay Kumar Bhowmik, Dulal Chandra Biswas, Abdullah Al Mamun and Selim Reza Newton were also arrested. They were arrested on charges of expressing solidarity with the student movement. Later, the army-backed government arrested five student leaders, including two DU teachers. After that the universities were declared closed. The campuses of Dhaka and Rajshahi universities were reopened after 7 long days after the incident. Progressive student organizations took to the field under the banner of anti-torture. Gradually the movement for the release of those arrested also gained momentum. Later, under two more banners, the student movement and the anti-torture student movement gave impetus to the student-teacher liberation movement. To the student-teacher liberation movement, the rate means an army-backed government. The arrested students and teachers were released. The Dhaka University family has been observing August 23 as Black Day since the next year.