A Bangladeshi who regularly flies to Calcutta for medical consultation landed in the city on Tuesday and narrated how different the latest journey to India was.
She was used to seeing a statue and a mural of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on the approach to Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka. On Tuesday, only large chunks of concrete stood in their places.
Excerpts from what Nur Nanat Begum Nazma, 62, said in Calcutta on Tuesday afternoon:
I have been flying in and out of Dhaka regularly for more than two decades.
The statue and the mural of Bangabandhu were hard to miss on the drive to the airport.
My flight was scheduled to leave at 12.40pm (Bangladesh time). We left home on Dhaka’s Bakshi Bazar Road at 6am (Bangladesh time) as we were apprehensive of trouble on the way to the airport.
I was seated behind the driver and expected the statue and the mural of Bangabandhu to loom into our view.
I could only see chunks of concrete instead. My driver informed me that like in other places across Dhaka, these, too, had been desecrated and pulled down.
The student protest against the quota system is relatable but there can’t be any reason to bring down the statue and the mural.