The government is now constructing a ‘July Martyrs’ Monument’ at the base of a mural of the country’s founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at C&B intersection in Rajshahi city.
The construction of the monument to show respect to the 2024 mass uprising martyrs began on Monday as per directives from higher authorities in Dhaka, said Rajshahi Public Works Department-1 executive engineer Rashedul Islam who has been overseeing the construction work.
He said that the monument was being constructed as part of a government initiative to build monuments in all the districts across the country.
The July-August mass uprising ousted the Awami League regime on August 5, 2024.
Immediately after the fall of the Awami League, an angry mob vandalized and damaged the country’s largest mural of Sheikh Mujib, built by the Rajshahi City Corporation. On February 9 this year, the mural was painted with white colour but the painters on that day could not say who had hired them for the job.
The ‘July Martyrs’ Monument’ is now being constructed in front of that damaged mural of Sheikh Mujib.
Rashedul said that the monument would feature an eighteen-foot-tall base engraved with the names of the martyrs from the July movement in Rajshahi.
As per the approved design, the centrepiece of the memorial will be an eighteen-foot-tall bronze pillar, featuring engraved names of the July martyrs, built on a circular platform.
The engineer said that the initial allocation for the project was Tk 4 lakh, while an additional Tk 8 lakh would be spent on the main plaque and engraved nameplate.
He said that the location was selected by the deputy commissioner and the divisional commissioner, and the construction was being carried out under their directives.
Rajshahi deputy commissioner Afia Akhtar and senior assistant commissioner SM Rokibul Hasan, the spokesperson of Rajshahi district administration, could not be reached for comments despite repeated attempts over the phone.
Professor Dulal Chandra Biswas of the mass communication and journalism department at Rajshahi University said that constructing a ‘July Martyrs’ Monument’ at the base of Sheikh Mujib’s mural was not appropriate.
‘Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman should remain where he was, and the July Mass Uprising should be commemorated in an appropriate place. Replacing one with the other carries no real meaning. Physical structures may be demolished but their place in people’s minds cannot be erased,’ he said.
The interim government has launched a nationwide initiative to commemorate the martyrs of the July-August uprising by beginning the construction of memorials in all 64 districts, cultural affairs adviser Mostofa Sarwar Farooki said at a press conference in Dhaka on Monday.