Madrasa students replace Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman nameplate on B’desh highway

DHAKA: Amid the ongoing crisis in Bangladesh, a group of local madrasa students removed the nameplate of the ‘Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Expressway’, commonly known as the Dhaka-Mawa Expressway in Bangladesh’s Munshiganj, the Dailystar reported.

Instead, they replaced it with a banner reading ‘Father of the Nation Hazrat Ibrahim (AS) Expressway’. As the violence continues to unfold in the South Asian country, some of the eyewitnesses, according to Dailystar, reported that the group broke the plaque on Thursday noon.

Maulana Obaidullah Kashemi, a Hefajat Islam leader and vice principal of Jamia Islamia Halimia Madhupur Madrasa, affirmed the action and announced that they intended to rename another toll plaza in Bhanga.

Madrasa students remove the nameplate of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in Bangladesh on a major highway:https://t.co/YiU8Q4TI9z

— Sidhant Sibal (@sidhant) August 10, 2024

According to Dewan Abul Kashem Mohammad Nahin Reza, Executive Engineer for Munshiganj Road and Highway, the titles of state infrastructures cannot be altered without a government gazette. Since August 5, toll collection has been suspended. If the state of law and order improves, he continued, the damaged toll plaza should be restored in four to five days, the Dailystar reported.

Bangladesh is facing a fluid political situation with Sheikh Hasina, 5, tendering her resignation from her post on August 5 in the wake of mounting protests. The protests, led majorly by students demanding an end to a quota system for government jobs, took the shape of anti-government protests.

Muhammad Yunus was sworn in as the head of Bangladesh’s interim government on August 8 night, three days after Sheikh Hasina resigned from the position of Prime Minister and left the country amid widespread unrest.

Seventeen members of Bangladesh’s interim government took their oath at a ceremony in Dhaka on Thursday. Nobel laureate economist Muhammad Yunus, 84, was sworn in as the country’s chief advisor.

Bangladesh’s President Mohammed Shahabuddin administered the oath to Yunus for his role as chief advisor, which is the equivalent to a Prime Minister. (ANI)