As many as 34 prominent citizens of the civil society have protested the attempt to forcibly occupy the house of language activist and freedom fighter Dhirendranath Dutta in Jhautala area of Cumilla city.
In a joint statement sent to the media on Saturday (November 14), they said the media reported that a special group (National Citizen Party-NCP) was trying to forcibly occupy the house by putting up a signboard reading “Memorial Museum.” The citizens have expressed deep anger and concern over the incident.
The statement said that in 1948, Dhirendranath Dutta was the first to raise a proposal to make Bengali one of the state languages in the then Constituent Assembly of Pakistan. After the massacre of March 25, 1971, Pakistani soldiers took him from his house, tortured him and killed him. His youngest son was also killed at the same time.
In the statement, the citizens demanded that the government immediately remove the signboards put up by the squatters from the house and return it to the control of the family. At the same time, they also demanded that a national institution be named after Dhirendranath Dutta and a road near the National Assembly be named after him.
The signatories to the statement include Professor Anu Muhammad, Advocate Sultana Kamal, Khushi Kabir, Dr. Iftekharuzzaman, Abu Sayeed Khan, ZI Khan Panna, Rasheda K Chowdhury, Shaheen Anam, Dr. Shahidul Alam and Shamsul Huda.