Distortion of History
HC summons Prof Bari
The High Court yesterday summoned Prof Ershadul Bari, former vice chancellor of Bangladesh Open University (BOU), before it on March 12 in connection with a charge of distorting the history of the War of Liberation.
During the hearing of a writ petition, the court issued the order after Dhaka University Pro-Vice Chancellor Prof Harun-or Rashid told it that Prof Bari was responsible for the distortion of history in a textbook he had written for BOU students in 2000.
It also requested former Bangladesh Bank governor Farash Uddin Ahmed, senior journalist Manjurul Ahsan Bulbul and BOU Treasurer Shanti Narayan Ghosh, members of a committee formed in 2010 to investigate the incident, to be present before it today and make statements about the distortion of history.
The HC also asked six academics, including Prof Harun, to appear before it today.
The five others are BOU Vice Chancellor Prof Aminur Rashid, Prof Shawkat Ara Hossain, Prof Sadiha Sultana, Mahfuza Chowdhury and HM Delwar Hossain.
All except Prof Aminur appeared before the HC bench of Justice AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury Manik and Justice Jahangir Hossain Selim yesterday, petitioner Belal Hussain Joy said.
The bench on March 1 asked them to appear before it to explain their roles in distorting information on the War of Liberation in two textbooks written by them under BOU.
Supreme Court lawyers Altaf Uddin Ahmed and Mahmud Hossain filed the petition with the HC in January 2010, saying that Sociology 2nd paper and Civics 2nd paper of HSC under the BOU termed late president Ziaur Rahman as the individual who had declared the country's independence, although the HC in a verdict in 2009 ruled that Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had declared the independence on March 26, 1971.
The books also said that Zia was the greatest son of the country and nation, although the HC termed Bangabandhu the greatest Bangalee of a thousand years.
The writ petition stated that the books were published by suppressing historical facts and incorporating false and fabricated information into the history of the declaration of the independence.
The HC on January 25, 2010, asked the authorities concerned to stop publishing and circulating the textbooks and issued a rule upon them to show cause why the books should not be confiscated and their publications should not be declared illegal.
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