Piash Karim dies; protests set at Shaheed Minar

The body has been kept at the hospital mortuary. His namaz-e-janaza will be held at Baitul Mukarram National Mosque today

Brac University teacher Prof Piash Karim died of cardiac arrest at a city hospital yesterday in his late fifties.

He was rushed to Square Hospital after he had fallen ill at his Dhanmondi residence early yesterday. He died at the hospital around 5:30am.

The body has been kept at the hospital mortuary. His namaz-e-janaza will be held at Baitul Mukarram National Mosque today.

Family members said the body would be kept at the Central Shaheed Minar at 11am today for people to pay homage. However, several organisations have announced programmes to resist the move labelling him as a man against the 1971 Liberation War.

Piash Karim was a professor of economics and social sciences at Brac University.

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia and her son Tarique Rahman, also the party’s senior vice-chairman, conveyed condolence at the sudden demise of Piash Karim.

Soon after the announcement that his body would be taken to the Shaheed Minar, people from different sections and various groups in social media criticised the decision.

They alleged that Piash Karim had acted “against the Liberation War” and that he was one of those who had made “negative remarks about the Shahbagh movement and the war crimes trials, particularly in television talk shows.”

Slogan 71, an organisation of Dhaka University students, announced that they would stage a sit-in programme in front of the Shaheed Minar this morning to resist any attempt of taking the body there.

President of the organisation Bhuiyan Md Fayezullah Manik told the Dhaka Tribune that Piash Karim had never talked in favour of the Liberation War. “We cannot accept that his body will be brought to the sacred Shaheed Minar.”

He also alleged that Piash Karim had blatantly talked in favour of the identified war criminals.

Meanwhile, fine arts students of Dhaka University will organise a street painting show in protest against the announcement that the body will be taken to the Shaheed Minar, Deen Mohammad Shohel, a student of oriental art department, told the Dhaka Tribune.

Chhatra Sangram Parishad urged the DU authorities not to allow taking the body to the Shaheed Minar terming him “a figure against the Liberation War,” Chhatra Moitri President Bappaditya Basu told the Dhaka Tribune.

A delegation of Chhatra Sangram Parishad, comprising Bappa, Chhatra Moitri General Secretary Tanvir Rusmat, Chhatra League (JSD) President Shamsul Islam Suman and Bangladesh Chhatra League university unit President Mehedi Hasan Mollah met DU Vice-Chancellor AAMS Arefin Siddique around 5pm to place the demand.

The parishad is a platform of seven student organisations which claimed to have affiliation with the pro-liberation political parties.

Bappa said the VC had phoned the proctor to take appropriate measure in this regard and assured the student leaders of considering the matter seriously.

He claimed that Piash Karim had been paid by the BNP and its key ally Jamaat-e-Islami and “that is why he always questioned the Shahbagh movement and the war crimes trials.”

His father MA Karim and grandfather Lel Mia had been leaders of Peace Committee in 1971, Bappa said.

Peace committees were formed during the war comprising members of Jamaat, Muslim League and some other Islamist parties and they collaborated with the Pakistani occupation forces against the independence of Bangladesh.

DU Proctor Amzad Ali said he had not received any application keeping Piash Karim’s body at the Shaheed Minar for paying homage.

Considering the protests of the student organisations, “the authorities may not give the permission,” he said.

Source: Dhaka Tribune