Book fair cancelled in Sylhet hours before inauguration

The police cancelled the approval for holding a week-long book fair at Sylhet Central Shaheed Minar hours before its inauguration, fearing a deterioration of the law and order situation.

The organisers alleged that the book fair was supposed to be inaugurated by the commerce minister Khandaker Abdul Muktadir on Friday morning, but Sylhet Metropolitan Police withdrew its permission for organising the fair on Thursday night.

The SMP deputy commissioner confirmed the withdrawal of the permission for the book fair; however, he did not explain the specific reason for the deteriorating law and order situation.

Sufi Sufian, general secretary of Prakashak Parishad, which organised the book fair, told journalists that after getting permission from the SMP, the construction of stalls, decoration and other preparatory work has almost been completed.

‘Twenty book publishing houses from Sylhet and Dhaka were supposed to participate in the fair. The publishing houses from Dhaka have already arrived in Sylhet,’ he said.City & Local Guides

Sufian claimed that they had to spend about Tk 3 to 4 lakh on the initial preparation of the book fair, including publicity cost and advance payment to set up the stalls.

The organisers said on Friday noon that this was not the first incident of cancellation of the permission for holding the book fair in Sylhet.

The Prakashak Parishad had taken preparation to hold a book fair at the same venue between February 7 and 15 last year and the then interim government had cancelled the approval before the beginning of the fair.

The organisers alleged that a quarter of people forced the police to cancel its permission by making a baseless allegation that there were ‘Awami fascists’ among the book fair organisers.