Sagar Biswas :
The month-long Amar Ekushey Boi Mela 2016 is going to begin on Bangla Academy premises and in a portion of Shuhrawardy Uddyan in the capital on Monday amid widespread apprehension of terror attack on secular writers and freethinkers.
This year, the mela will be held at a time when several writers and publishers have recently received death threat from the fundamentalist group through SMS, email or letter.
And none was brought to justice till the date, while a freethinker and writer Avijit Roy was killed on February 26 last year when he was coming out of mela premises. Earlier, Dhaka
University teacher Humayun Azad also came under attack in the same area.
The organizers, however, believe that previous incidents of attack on bloggers and writers would not create any negative impact on the book fair this year. They also expressed optimism as saying that the ‘Bangalees’ will give a befitting answer to the ‘fundamentalist threat’ by arranging the book fair in a successful manner. The publishers have laid emphasis on individual security arrangements keeping coordination with the overall security set-up by the law enforcement agencies.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police [DMP] sources said, the entire mela area has already been brought under foolproof security system with installing about 250 close circuit cameras in different corners from Doel Chattar to Fine Arts Faculty of Dhaka University.
“Adequate number of security personnel will be deployed at every entrance and exit gate of the Bangla Academy. There will be nine watch towers, from which we will monitor the area round-the-clock,” Mohammad Ibrahim, Additional Deputy Commissioner of DMP, said.
“Apart from police and Rapid Action Battalion [RAB], the mela premises will also be surrounded by the members of other security and intelligence agencies. There will be eight entry and exit gates in Bangla Academy but there will be only one entry and exit gate at Shuhrawardy Uddyan to ensure safety to the visitors,” he said. Expecting huge gathering due to stable political situation, officials said that there will be a total of 651 stalls of 401 organisations in the boi mela this year.
The month-long Amar Ekushey Boi Mela 2016 is going to begin on Bangla Academy premises and in a portion of Shuhrawardy Uddyan in the capital on Monday amid widespread apprehension of terror attack on secular writers and freethinkers.
This year, the mela will be held at a time when several writers and publishers have recently received death threat from the fundamentalist group through SMS, email or letter.
And none was brought to justice till the date, while a freethinker and writer Avijit Roy was killed on February 26 last year when he was coming out of mela premises. Earlier, Dhaka
University teacher Humayun Azad also came under attack in the same area.
The organizers, however, believe that previous incidents of attack on bloggers and writers would not create any negative impact on the book fair this year. They also expressed optimism as saying that the ‘Bangalees’ will give a befitting answer to the ‘fundamentalist threat’ by arranging the book fair in a successful manner. The publishers have laid emphasis on individual security arrangements keeping coordination with the overall security set-up by the law enforcement agencies.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police [DMP] sources said, the entire mela area has already been brought under foolproof security system with installing about 250 close circuit cameras in different corners from Doel Chattar to Fine Arts Faculty of Dhaka University.
“Adequate number of security personnel will be deployed at every entrance and exit gate of the Bangla Academy. There will be nine watch towers, from which we will monitor the area round-the-clock,” Mohammad Ibrahim, Additional Deputy Commissioner of DMP, said.
“Apart from police and Rapid Action Battalion [RAB], the mela premises will also be surrounded by the members of other security and intelligence agencies. There will be eight entry and exit gates in Bangla Academy but there will be only one entry and exit gate at Shuhrawardy Uddyan to ensure safety to the visitors,” he said. Expecting huge gathering due to stable political situation, officials said that there will be a total of 651 stalls of 401 organisations in the boi mela this year.
