DU’s Mujib Hall gate renamed in honour of Hadi

The student union of Dhaka University’s Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Hall has removed the Awami League leader’s name from the dormitory’s main gate and repainted it with the words “Shahid Osman Hadi.”

The repainting began around 9:45pm on Saturday using a crane and continued until about 11pm.

The hall union’s General Secretary, Ahmed Al Sabah, said graffiti of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on the dormitory walls would also be replaced with graffiti of Hadi, a participant in the July Uprising.

Vice President of the hall union, Muslemur Rahman, told reporters that students decided to remove Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s name in retaliation for the killing of Hadi, which they allege was carried out by Mujib’s present-day supporters.

Muslemur also said students expressed anger over the interim government’s failure to arrest those responsible for the killing and their alleged backers.

There was no official announcement or administrative decision regarding the renaming, and the move appears to have been initiated by the students themselves. In a press release issued on Saturday, DUCSU and various hall unions said they would lay siege to the vice-chancellor’s office on Sunday, demanding the renaming of all university halls currently named after Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his family.

‘80% of students support renaming’

Ahmed Al Sabah said student representatives had earlier approached the university authorities, urging them to rename the hall in line with a broader trend of removing Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s name—whom he described as “the ideological father of fascists”—from student dormitories across the country.

According to him, the authorities did not respond to the demand, prompting students to take the initiative themselves.

He added that around 80% of the hall’s residents have signed in favour of renaming the dormitory and removing Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s name. Previously, students had proposed naming the hall after rebel poet Kazi Nazrul Islam.

However, following Hadi’s killing, they decided to name the hall after him instead.