BCL allegedly snatched Modi’s effigy to escape burning

Activists of the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) have allegedly forcibly taken away Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s effigy that was made to burn as a part of the protest against Modi’s arrival in Bangladesh marking the golden jubilee of independence and the birth centenary of Sheikh Mujib.

The incident took place on Tuesday at around 11:45 am at the Teachers-Students Centre (TSC) of Dhaka University (DU) campus while activists of Chhatra Federation were preparing to burn the effigy.

Earlier, Bangladesh Chhatra Federation announced that it will burn Modi’s effigy at the anti-terrorism Raju Memorial Sculpture to protest his (Modi) arrival on March 26. On the contrary, activists of Kabi Nazrul College BCL, led by deputy secretary for Literary Affairs of BCL, took place in the morning. Raju said that “we are here to join the BCL’s rally at 3 pm”.

Eyewitnesses said that leaders and activists of the Federation started gathering at TSC in the morning where they made a puppet of Narendra Modi and put it near TSC gate. Suddenly some BCL leader came and forcibly took the effigy away.

We were setting an effigy to burn at the Sanjeeb Square of TSC but suddenly around 4-5 BCL activists came to us and snatched Modi’s effigy. Then they rushed towards Central Shaheed Minar with that effigy,” Golam Mustafa, president of Bangladesh Chhatra Federation claimed.

“We weren’t able to identify any of them,” he added.

General Secretary of Dhaka University Chhatra League Saddam Hussain said I was not aware of the incident, till you asked me.

However, leaders and activists of the Chhatra Federation brought out a procession demanding the cancellation of Modi’s visit following the golden jubilee of independence of Bangladesh and the birth centenary of Sheikh Mujib. After the procession, they burnt several printed picture of Narendra Modi in front of TSC gate.