Terming it an "unholy, dirty stinking and stigmatised place", senior journalist Shafik Rehman on Saturday urged all to refrain from using the Central Shaheed Minar as it has "turned into an Awami Minar."

"I think time has come to ban this scandalous, dirty stinking, and unsacred Shaheed Minar…no gentle citizen should turn up at this place, not before or after one’s death," he said.

Shafik, also a columnist, made the remarks in presence of BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir at the Jatiya Press Club at a meeting organised in memory of Brac University professor Piash Karim who died on Monday.

He was also very critical of the student and cultural organisations that prevented Piash Karim’s family from taking his body to the Central Shaheed Minar for enabling people to pay their last homage to him.

Shafik Rehman, a pro-BNP intellectual, claimed that it is the ruling Awami League's stigma that has made the central Shaheed Minar a scandalous place. "This Shaheed Minar has now become a minar of Awami autocracy…It's now Awami Minar, not Shaheed Minar," he added.

"No gentle man or innocent person's body should be brought to this Shaheed Minar. I've read in the newspapers that some terrorists declared some citizens unwanted at the place," he said.

He urged the country's people to boycott the Central Shaheed Minar. "You (people) rather join the upcoming movement for establishing a civilized society and democracy in the country."

Shafik also said intensifying a movement to oust the 'criminals' forever will be the timely steps to show the real homage to brave orator Piash Karim.

He also called upon people to become active to free the Shaheed Minar from stigma. "The whole Bangladesh will have to be freed from Awami stigma in a bid to free the Shaheed Minar from stigma."

Asked over phone whether he read out any such written statement at the programme, Shafik Rehman told UNB, “Yes, I did.” UNB obtained a copy of his written speech.

On Wednesday, Dhaka University authorities rejected an application of Piash Karim’s family seeking permission for bringing his body to the Shaheed Minar in the wake of a strong protest by some student and cultural organisations against it.

Meanwhile, Muktijoddha Santan Command on Friday declared nine citizens unwanted at the central Shaheed Minar. They are Columnist Farhad Mazhar, daily Manabzamin editor Motiur Rahman Chowdhury, Columnist Mahfuzullah, new age editor Nurul Kabir, DU teachers Asif Nazrul and Amena Mohsin, lawyer Tuhin Malik, journalist Golam Mortuza and Brac University teacher Dilara Chowdhury.

Shaheed Minar is a mausoleum for the martyrs of the country’s 1952 Language Movement.

UNB/ZA