The New Nation - Internet Edition

DU Correspondent

Dhaka University (DU) authorities yesterday paid homage to the memories of 39 students and employees killed in a building collapse at university's Jagannath Hall on October 15 in 1985, marking its 23rd anniversary.

The DU authorities and other organisations organised different programmes to observe the mourning day.

Vice-Chancellor Prof SMA Faiz, Pro-VC Prof AFM Yusuf Haider, provosts of different residential dormitories and other teachers of the university placed wreaths at the memorial inside the hall in the morning.

Black flags were hoisted atop of all buildings in the university, while university flag was at half-mast in front of the Arts Building.

University authorities, teachers and students wearing black badges took part in a mourning procession that began from the foot of Aparayeo Bangla.

Special prayers were also organised at Jagannath Hall premises in the morning and at DU central mosque after Asr prayer.

Family members and relatives of the victims also paid homage to their lost kinsmen.

Jagannath Hall authorities arranged an painting exhibition on victims of the building collapse marking the day.

As the clock struck half past eight in that tragic night of the hall's history after the war of independence, the auditorium of the ramshackle building became overcrowded with the students and employees of the hall.

They thronged there to watch a popular drama 'Shuktara' on Bangladesh Television. Manan Adhikari, a resident student of the hall, was one of the performers in the drama serial.

As the students were enjoying the serial, based on the lifestyle of middle-class, the roof caved in on them.

The sudden disaster struck the residents of the capital as the volunteers appealed for bloods through public announcement systems at midnight. Hundreds of people queued in at the hospitals to give bloods, but it could not save the lives of 39 students and employees.

The university authorities later arranged jobs for eight of the students, who survived and six of them joined the jobs.