DU citation, crests for Bangabandhu presented to Hasina

Dhaka University Vice-Chancellor Prof AAMS Arefin Siddique hands over a crest to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at Bangabandhu Memorial Museum in the capital's Dhanmondi yesterday. The crest is one of the two, alongside a citation, that were supposed to be presented to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on his visit to the university during its convocation on August 15, 1975. Photo: BSS

A citation and crests, supposed to be presented to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on his visit to Dhaka University during its convocation on August 15, 1975, were handed over to his daughter, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, yesterday.
Bangabandhu, then the country's president and chancellor of DU, and most of his family members were gunned down by a group of disgruntled army officers in the early hours of that day.
The citation was found inside a steel cabinet in a room of the DU administrative building on December 2, 2009. The two silver crests bearing the DU monogram and a casket the citation was encased in were found in a safe at the Registrar's Office.
Amir Hossain, a retired deputy registrar, found the citation while searching for his personal documents and handed it over to DU Vice-Chancellor (VC) Prof Dr AAMS Arefin Siddique two days later.
The VC handed over the citation and some gifts to the prime minister at a simple ceremony at Bangabandhu Memorial Museum in the capital's Dhanmondi.
He read out the citation, supposed to be read out at the August 15, 1975 convocation by the then DU VC late Prof Abdul Matin Chaudhury.
Hasina thanked the DU administration for preserving the items even through adverse situations and said those would be preserved in an archive that would be set up by expanding the museum.
She said, as a former DU student, she had wanted to attend the convocation but had to inform Prof Matin that she could not as her husband, Dr Wazed Mia, had insisted that she accompany him to Germany.
She and her younger sister, Sheikh Rehana, had left Dhaka for Germany on July 30, 1975 and thus survived the August 15 attack.