2 JU Chhatra Union leaders suspended for drawing anti-rape graffiti over Bangabandhu’s portrait

Two students of Jahangirnagar University (JU) were suspended on Wednesday for one year for painting an anti-rape graffiti erasing an old painting of Bangabandhu from a wall of new arts building of the university.

The students are Amartya Roy and Riddha Anindya Ganguly of the university's Archaeology department's 47th batch. They are president and general secretary of Bangladesh Chhatra Union's JU unit.

The decision was taken at a syndicate meeting presided by the university's Vice-Chancellor Prof Nurul Alam on Tuesday afternoon.

The JU administration has also decided to file a case against them, said the university's Registrar and Syndicate Secretary Abu Hasan.

The anti-rape graffiti includes a flag with a woman's figure and six skulls lying near the country's flag. Next to it, they wrote: "Freedom from Rape and Tyranny."

One of the suspended leaders of Chhatra Union, Amrtya said, they painted the graffiti protesting the recent rape incident that took place in their university in which a Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) leader was accused.

Regarding the graffiti, Amartya Roy said, "Before the painting of Bangabandhu, there was an Anti-Corruption graffiti during the time of former Vice-Chancellor Farzana Islam. That graffiti was a protest against the corruption in the university."

He said no walls of the university is particularly allocated for anyone, and as the last graffiti was almost ruined at that time, they painted the anti-rape graffiti on that wall.

Earlier, Enamul Haque Enam, vice-president of JU BCL unit, went on hunger strike for  83 hours claiming that the anti-rape graffiti insulted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was insulted as his painting was erased.

The BCL leader broke the hunger strike when the vice-chancellor came and assured to investigate and punish the students who drew the graffiti in the next syndicate meeting.