A year after the much-publicised “36 July: Festival of Liberation” concert at Rajshahi University was cancelled, the money collected from contributors remains unreturned and its finances unexplained.
Despite pledging to publish a full account of the event’s expenditure after allegations of extortion surfaced, Rajshahi University Central Students’ Union (Rucsu) General Secretary Salahuddin Ammar has yet to release the accounts, raising fresh questions over transparency and accountability.
Fresh controversy has now engulfed him after NovoCulture, an organisation of which he is a director, installed a campus billboard featuring Jamaat-e-Islami and BNP leaders convicted of crimes against humanity during the Liberation War.
The concert was planned to mark the first anniversary of the 2024 July uprising but was never held in its proposed form.
Ammar, then a co-coordinator of the university unit of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, had announced that he would disclose the full accounts after allegations emerged that money had been improperly sought from public and private institutions.
No accounts have been published over the past year.
Ammar admitted to TIMES of Bangladesh that the money collected for the event had not been refunded, saying some of it was spent on advance payments and a smaller programme featuring the band Ark.
He said Tk2.5 lakh had been raised from three contributors and claimed he later incurred debts of Tk2 lakh.
“I have not provided an explanation because the matter is still unresolved. Artscell owes me money, while I also owe money to others,” Ammar said.
“The time has not yet come to clarify everything. However, I will explain it through social media within a few days.”
Documents circulated online showed that letters were sent to 70 institutions seeking Tk76 lakh for the programme. The letters also carried the “strong recommendation” of the then vice-chancellor, Saleh Hasan Naqib.
Ammar said the proposed two-day festival had an estimated budget of Tk70 lakh and was intended to feature rock, folk, rap and Islamic bands.
The plan also included Tk15 lakh in financial assistance for the families of three martyrs.
He insisted that the letters were sponsorship proposals rather than attempts to extort money.
Ammar said the then administrator of Rajshahi City Corporation provided a cheque for Tk2 lakh, Sultan’s Dine contributed Tk30,000 and another individual gave Tk20,000.
Popular rock band Artscell had been scheduled to perform but withdrew at the last moment.
Ammar said some advance payments, including for a sound system, had already been made. A smaller event featuring Ark was later organised at a cost of around Tk3 lakh.
He accused candidates defeated in the Rucsu election of spreading rumours and blamed student representative in the university’s Senate, Fahim Reza, for fuelling the extortion allegations.
Fahim, however, revealed that a former divisional commissioner first alerted him to the issue.
“A former divisional commissioner told me that Ammar was collecting money through extortion,” Fahim told TIMES.
He said that the commissioner shared the sponsorship proposal while Fahim was visiting to secure funding for a documentary. Staff members subsequently told him that identical letters were sent to the deputy commissioner’s office, the city corporation, the district council, and multiple banks.
Convicts’ billboard sparks outrage
NovoCulture installed the billboard, titled Judicial Killing, near Paris Road on the university campus on Saturday.
It features photographs of Jamaat leaders Matiur Rahman Nizami, Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid, Abdul Quader Mollah, Mir Quasem Ali and Delawar Hossain Sayeedi, along with BNP leader Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury.
All were convicted of crimes against humanity committed during the Liberation War.
Ammar said the initiative was not intended to absolve them of war crimes but to raise questions over whether their trials and death sentences had been politically influenced.
Rucsu Vice-President Mostakur Rahman Jahid distanced the student union from the billboard. “Rucsu is not involved in this,” he said.
Fuad Ratul, convener of the Ganatantrik Chhatra Jote, said no attempt to normalise collaborators would be accepted on the campus or elsewhere in Bangladesh.
Mahmudul Hasan Mithu, organisational secretary of the university unit of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, said there was no justification for linking the July-August mass uprising with unrelated political issues from the past.
Mehedi Hasan Maruf, president of the university branch of Chhatra Adhikar Parishad, said displaying photographs of people convicted in war crimes cases and promoting disputed narratives around them was unacceptable at a university.
