Publishers and bookshop owners across the country kept their
businesses closed for hours yesterday, protesting the murder of Faisal
Arefin Dipan, owner of Jagriti Prokashani, and the brutal attack on
another publisher and two bloggers.
They did not open their offices and stores until 2:00pm to press home their demand for immediate action against the culprits.
Bangladesh Publishers and Book-Sellers Association brought out silent
processions at several places in the capital and elsewhere.
Wearing black badges, publishers and bookshop owners also submitted
memorandums to the 64 deputy commissioners' offices, demanding their
security and punishment to the culprits behind the killing and assault,
its leaders said at a human chain in front of the Jatiya Press Club.
Gonojagoron Mancha, a platform demanding capital punishment for war
criminals, is scheduled to enforce a six-hour countrywide hartal from
6:00am today to protest the attacks.
From a rally in the capital's Shahbagh on Sunday, Imran H Sarker,
spokesperson for a Mancha faction, said, “The hartal will be called off
if law enforcers arrest the culprits within 24 hours.”
HUMAN CHAIN
At the human chain, Alamgir Sikdar Loton, a central leader of the
association, said, “At first it was the writers and bloggers who were
attacked. Now they [assailants] are targeting the publishers. It seems
readers are on their next hit list.”
Without freethinking it is impossible for any author to come up with
good stories and if publishers are not provided with good write-ups, the
number of good books will come down. It will only deprive the readers,
he said.
Shah Alam, owner of a bookstore in the capital, said a welcoming
ambience was essential for the sake of promoting freethinking and
publishing books.
Criticising members of law enforcement agencies for their failure in
arresting the killers of Dipan, Robin Ahsan of Srabon Prokashani alleged
the government was giving them a false assurance.
“It seems publishing books has become a big crime these days,” he said.
Khan Mahbub of Kollol Prokashani called for a united movement to prevent attacks on publishers and bloggers in future.
He also demanded that a portion of the five-storey association building, which is under construction, be named after Dipan.
The association has around 10,000 registered and 12,000 unregistered members across the country, according to its members.
In what appeared to be synchronised attacks, suspected militants
hacked to death Dipan at Shahbagh and critically injured Ahmedur Rashid
Tutul of Shuddhoswar Prokashani and two bloggers in Lalmatia on
Saturday.
Both Dipan and Tutul had published books of slain writer-blogger
Avijit Roy, a US-Bangladesh citizen who was hacked to death in the
capital on February 26.
On Sunday Farid Ahmed, publisher of Shomoy Prokashani, received a death threat through an SMS.
