24 eminent citizens condemn 'Razakar' slogan

A number of 24 eminent citizens have condemned the slogans used by the general students in protest of the prime minister’s remark over quota reform movement.

In a statement sent to the media on Monday (July 15), they said, "We were very surprised and angry to hear the slogans 'Tumi ke Ami ke, Razakar Razakar' (‘who are you, who am I, Razakar, razakar’), 'We are all Razakar' from the procession of protesting students in several universities including Dhaka University.”

The statement said, "We are deeply saddened and outraged that slogans representing razakars who opposed the liberation war and killed the country’s intellectuals were raised on Dhaka University campus, a place for the cultivation of Bengali ethnicity, the spread of knowledge and the practice of liberal culture."

"We think that no one has the right to carry the national flag of Bangladesh by abandoning the great liberation war, heroic freedom fighters and the spirit of the liberation war. We strongly condemn this anti-liberation war role of a section of the participants of the anti-quota movement and hope that they will realize their mistake,” the statement added.

The signatories of the statement are Professor Dr Anupam Sen, Syed Hasan Imam, Ferdousi Majumder, Sujay Shyam, Dr Sarwar Ali, Abed Khan, Colonel (retd) Sajjad Ali Bir Pratik, Mamunur Rashid, Mofidul Haque, Shyamoli Nasreen Chowdhury, Nasir Uddin Yusuf, Professor Dr Kamrul Hasan Khan, Professor Shafi Ahmed, Professor Abdus Salim, Professor Mamtazuddin Patwari, M Hamid, Raisul Islam Asad, Golam Quddus, Shyamal Dutt, Professor Malay Bhowmik, Lucky Inam, Sara Zaker, Shimul Yusuf, Ahkam Ullah, and Nasir Uddin Yusuf.