Bangla professor suspended for defaming PM's father

A professor of Bangladesh's prestigious Dhaka University has been suspended for allegedly making derogatory comments on Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the country's first post-independence president and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's father, media reports said.

Morshed Hasan Khan was suspended on allegations of distorting history of the Liberation War and defaming Bangabandhu, the varsity said in a statement yesterday.

"He has been temporally suspended from all academic and administrative activities for distorting the history of the Liberation War and making offensive remarks about Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in his article titled Jyotirmoy Zia' published in a national daily on March 26," DU Vice-chancellor Professor Akhtaruzzaman was quoted as saying by the Dhaka Tribune.

In his article, Khan claimed military strongman and opposition hero Ziaur Rahman, founder of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), was the man who declared independence during the Liberation War and also claimed that Awami League leaders, including Bangabandhu, left the country during the time, leaving the country in turmoil.

Khan, the professor of marketing, cited a number of former Indian politicians, including Indira Gandhi and Neelam Sanjiva Reddy, to support his claims.

After the article was published, Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) last Tuesday declared the professor "persona non grata" on campus and submitted a memorandum to the vice-chancellor demanding his suspension.

Dhaka University Teachers Association (DUTA) also demanded his resignation.

Student supporters of the Awami League stormed Dhaka University's campus and declared Khan was no longer welcome after the piece attracted a firestorm of publicity. As a part of the protest, Chhatra League activists burnt an effigy of the professor and a copy of the Naya Diganta newspaper.

Teachers have been punished in the past for stances critical of Hasina's father.

In August last year, a Chittagong court sent 13 high school teachers to jail in a sedition case filed for reportedly defaming Bangabandhu.