Bangladesh: Hundreds of vandalised Liberation War sculptures still unrestored

Dhaka, Dec 18 (IANS) Bangladesh faces a national heritage crisis with scores of sculptures depicting the country’s 1971 Liberation War against Pakistan and other historic events remaining vandalised and without visible restoration plans.

Following the student-led demonstrations last year that led to the fall of the Awami League government, hundreds of sculptures, murals, and monuments across Dhaka and other regions were destroyed, set ablaze, or uprooted all over the country.

Speaking to the Bangladeshi daily, Dhaka Tribune, Nasimul Khabir, chairman of the Department of Sculpture at Dhaka University, confirmed that a preliminary nationwide list documenting 450 vandalised sculptures was compiled in the months after August 2024.

“Taking advantage of the political unrest, numerous sculptures were vandalised across the country. Many had no political affiliation, yet they were still attacked. A notable example is the Venus sculpture at the residence of Maharaja Shashikanta Acharya in Mymensingh, targeted by religious extremists despite its heritage value,” Kabir stated.

According to the Department of Sculpture, over 300 documentary sculptures commemorating the Liberation War were damaged in Mujibnagar, Meherpur district alone.

Several other works, including Bangabandhu’s bust at Jagannath Hall, the sculpture at Ansar Academy in Shafipur, the Chandpur bus stand sculpture, and Liberation War memorials in Shibchar and Rajshahi. Sculptures by Ashiqur Rahman, Shyamal Chowdhury, and Mrinal Haque, among others, were also destroyed.

Reports suggest that at Suhrawardy Udyan in Dhaka, several under-construction reliefs, including memorials of Independence and Liberation War events, were damaged, alongside sculptures marking the December 16, 1971, surrender of the Pakistani Army and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s historic March 7, 1971, speech.

Earlier in July, in an incident of vandalism targeting historical representations of the Liberation War, the image of Bangabandhu in the Independence Memorial Mural ‘Arjon’ was defaced with ink.

In April, a mob of radicals demolished the Martyred Intellectuals Memorial in Dhaka’s Mirpur area. The monument was a symbol of the genocide committed by the Pakistan Army during the Liberation War of Bangladesh.

The memorial in the Mirpur area of Dhaka honoured the luminaries who sacrificed their lives for the country’s independence during the war with Pakistan.

In a similar act, the mural of the Liberation War Memorial Mancha in Lalmonirhat district was demolished at the instruction of the Muhammad Yunus-led interim government in March.

On August 21 last year the country’s leading newspaper Prothom Alo published a report titled ‘1,500 sculptures and murals vandalised all over country’, documenting that between 5 and 14 August, 1,494 sculptures, relief sculptures (figures carved or moulded on walls using ceramic or terracotta), murals and monuments were vandalised, set on fire or uprooted in 59 districts in the aftermath of the fall of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina led Awami League government.

Earlier this month, the Awami League accused the Yunus-led interim government of seeking to rewrite or erase the history of the country’s 1971 Liberation War against Pakistan, calling it a deeply troubling pattern.

“The assault has not stopped during the holidays. Symbols of the nation’s founding are under attack. Portraits of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman have been removed from government offices and even currency notes, erasing his presence from the everyday lives of citizens. Statues and murals commemorating the Liberation War have been defaced, destroyed, or abandoned, leaving public spaces stripped of memory and meaning,” the party asserted.

The Awami League stated that the pattern is unmistakable, arguing that these actions mirror the old Pakistani strategy–weakening national memory, downplaying 1971, and dismantling the rituals that define Bangladesh’s independence.

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