Rajshahi University Central Students’ Union general secretary Salahuddin Ammar led a July feast involving the slaughter of a cow named “Bakshal.” The meal was held at 2pm on Saturday at the university’s central mosque premises, according to the report. About more than 600 students attended the feast.

In a video posted on his personal Facebook page on Friday night, Ammar said the cow had been named Bakshal and would be sacrificed as part of the celebration, which he described as a July feast or July hospitality. He also invited students to attend. In a separate midnight post, he wrote that Bakshal had been laid down on the night of August 15.

Applications were collected through a Google Form, with a registration fee of Tk15. Organizers said about 750 students were taking part, with beef meals for roughly 650 and alternative food for the remaining 100. The event was initially promoted as a RAKSU initiative, prompting criticism online. Ammar later said RAKSU was not involved because all its members had not agreed, and said the cow’s name referred to the historical day of Bakshal’s fall and two years since the July mass uprising.