Chattogram: Members of two ruling Awami League front organisations erased former president Ziaur Rahman’s name from a signboard in front of Zia Memorial Museum in the city on Tuesday.

Bangladesh Chhatra League and Jubo League activists also put up another signboard there with the photo of Deputy Education Minister Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury Nowfel, reports the UNB.

They held a human chain under the banner of pro-liberation students’ forum near the Circuit House in Kazir Deuri around noon before erasing the BNP founder’s name.

They dubbed Zia a ‘controversial’ leader and argued that a Liberation War museum cannot be named after him. The protesters demanded renaming it Liberation War museum before the Independence Day.

Zia, a sector commander during the Liberation War, went on to become the president of Bangladesh and founded the BNP on September 1, 1978.

The development came a day after Nowfel, an MP from Chattogram 9, proposed renaming the museum in a Cabinet meeting.

He said the renaming process was underway. “It is a longstanding demand of Chattogram’s residents,” Nowfel said. “I moved the proposal as an MP from this constituency. Since it has everyone’s approval, a written proposal will do.”

Meanwhile, BNP’s Chattogram metropolitan unit acting President Abu Sufian condemned erasure of Zia’s name and accused the government of trying to obliterate the name of the former president and destroy the BNP.