The New Nation - Internet Edition

bdnews24.com, Dhaka

The teachers, students and staff of Dhaka University will wear black badges on Saturday as a mark of protest in line with a decision of the Dhaka University Teachers' Association (DUTA) to observe August 23 as a 'black day'.

The gesture highlights the mass arrests of students and teachers of the premier university in the aftermath of a campus unrest in the second half of August 2007, the DUTA said in a press statement on Friday.

They will also hold a discussion at the Teacher-Student Centre at 4pm in the day.

The statement signed by DUTA general secretary professor Anwar Hossain said in line with a decision made in the last senate meeting to observe the day as a 'black day', an emergency meeting convened on August 20 under professor Sadrul Amin's stewardship decided the 'black day's programme. DU professors Md Anwar Hossain and Harun-ur-Rashid were arrested on Aug 23, 2007 following violent clashes that erupted over the demand for withdrawal of the army camp from the campus.

The DUTA president professor Sadrul Amin and professor Nimchandra Bhowmik and a number of students were arrested later.