Boishakh wall art tainted in Chittagong

Unidentified miscreants defaced Pohela Boishakh wall murals created by students of Chittagong University’s (CU) Fine Arts Institute on Chatteshwari Road in Chittagong yesterday.
According to the students, the miscreants had smeared burnt oil on the institute’s walls decorated with traditional Santali paintings.
The students said the incident happened around midnight when there was a power cut on campus. “Like every day, we had gone back to our hostel on the campus after finishing our art-work around 11 pm. The campus electricity went off around 12 am. In the meantime, a group of five to six motorcycle-borne persons came to the campus and vandalised the walls,” said SM Al-Mahmud, a post-graduation student of the institute. “They also verbally abused us for drawing such pictures,” he added.
Zahid Ali Chowdhury, an associate professor of the institute, said, “This abomination is possibly the handiwork of some anti-culture elements. We and our students are very upset, but not afraid. We want the administration to find out the culprits.”Police said they were scanning CCTV footage to identify the miscreants.“The police are also investigating whether it was the fallout of any internal conflict on campus,” said the deputy commissioner (South) of Chittagong Metropolitan Police, SM Mostain Hossain.

 

Boishakh wall art tainted in Chittagong

Unidentified miscreants defaced Pohela Boishakh wall murals created by students of Chittagong Universitys (CU) Fine Arts Institute on Chatteshwari Road in Chittagong yesterday. According to the students, the miscreants had smeared burnt oil on the institutes walls decorated with traditional Santali paintings. The students said the incident happened around midnight when there was a power cut on campus. Like every day, we had gone back to our hostel on the campus after finishing our art-work around 11 pm. The campus electricity went off around 12 am. In the meantime, a group of five to six motorcycle-borne persons came to the campus and vandalised the walls, said SM Al-Mahmud, a post-graduation student of the institute. They also verbally abused us for drawing such pictures, he added. Zahid Ali Chowdhury, an associate professor of the institute, said, This abomination is possibly the handiwork of some anti-culture elements. We and our students are very upset, but not afraid. We want the administration to find out the culprits.Police said they were scanning CCTV footage to identify the miscreants.The police are also investigating whether it was the fallout of any internal conflict on campus, said the deputy commissioner (South) of Chittagong Metropolitan Police, SM Mostain Hossain.