CA urges foreign guests to see graffiti drawn by youths

Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus today urged the foreign guests attending the 'Bay of Bengal Conversation' to witness the graffiti and paintings drawn by the young revolutionaries expressing their emotions and aspirations. He made the call while addressing the inaugural session of the 3rd edition of 'Bay of Bengal Conversation' organised by the Centre for Governance Studies (CGS) at a city hotel this morning.

This year's conference titled "A Fractured World," brings together over 200 speakers, 300 delegates, and an audience of 800 participants hailing from more than 80 countries around the world. The chief adviser said: "To foreign guests: I urge you not to miss an historical opportunity to walk through Dhaka streets, and watch the walls along the streets painted with the colourful paintings expressing the emotions and aspirations of young people, painted while there was a lull between the killing spree."

"Anybody watching them cannot but be amazed by the power of the expressions young people came up with, right at the killing fields," he said. It is a true pleasure to be with the guests today, right here in a city which has experienced a unique political upheaval barely hundred days back, he added.

Recalling that this was a student-led revolution to bring down a fascist regime which ruled the country for last sixteen years, Prof Yunus welcomed the international guests to a freshly emerged country, calling it New Bangladesh, to highlight the distance it wants to establish from the old Bangladesh.

He said hundred days back nearly 1,500 students, workers and other demonstrators were killed by the old regime, while nearly 20,000 were wounded. "Through this international gathering let us pay respect to all those who sacrificed their lives, those who lost their limbs, eyes and many physical capacities, and those who are struggling with their lives right now," the chief adviser continued.