A group of students at Dhaka University early Wednesday recreated the erased portrait of freedom fighter and Maoist leader Sirajul Huq Sikder, better known as Siraj Sikder, on a wall at the university.
They started graffiting the portrait on a wall adjacent to the university library on Tuesday evening, completing it in the early hours of Wednesday.
鈥榃e painted the original graffiti, but it was erased due to a controversial post. Now, we are recreating it,鈥� a student, involved in the redrawing the portrait, told 抖阴精品.聽
Nayeem Uddin, a student of the DU anthropology department said, 鈥楢fter the mass uprising, those who admire the politics of Comrade Siraj Sikder spontaneously created the graffiti as a protest against the fascism of Awami League.鈥�
A group erased the graffiti over a Facebook post of Bangladesh Chhatra Union Dhaka University unit president Meghmallar Bosu.
Removing Siraj Sikder鈥檚 portrait was clear disrespect towards a revolutionary leader who stood for workers, peasants, students, indigenous people and all other oppressed communities, Nayem added.
Highlighting Siraj Sikder鈥檚 ideology, he said, 鈥楬is politics revolved around opposition to imperialism, Indian expansionism and capitalism.鈥�
Early Saturday, a group of students of the university erased his portrait graffitied on a wall at DU and hurled shoes at it, drawing widespread criticism and protests from left-leaning corners.
Freedom fighter Siraj Sikder founded Purba Bangla Sarbahara Party and was an organiser of the resistance battle in the War of Independence.
In 1975, he was killed while in custody of Jatiya Rakkhi Bahini, an elite para-military force formed on February 8, 1972 by the government led by the country鈥檚 founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
