Tight security at Book Fair after bomb attack threat
DU Correspondent :
Security measures at the ongoing Amar Ekushey Book Fair have been tightened after an alleged bomb attack threat on the fair by the banned militant outfit Ansar al Islam.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police on Friday carried out a special operation with dog squad at the fairground of the Suhrawardy Udyan and Bangla Academy premises.
Since this morning, visitors were seen to go through archways to enter the venues and security personnel were seen to check all the visitors’ bags.
Earlier, on Thursday, a person, claiming to be Moulana Saiful Islam, wrote to the director general of Bangla Academy to issue the threat of bomb attack.
Bangla Academy security officer Md Jahangir Alam filed the general diary on behalf of the Bangla Academy authorities with Shahbag Police Station after receiving the letter of bomb attack.
The last Friday of the ongoing Amar Ekushey Book Fair, which kicked off on the first February, drew large crowds as thousands of men, women and children gathered to visit the fair with much encouragement.
The entrance gate of the fair saw a long line up of the visitors who came to enter the fair and the policemen were also busy controlling the crowd.
Number of book lovers have found in Academia Publishing House Limited (APL) in Suhrawardy Udyan stall-266 as it is famous for shelving new, most discussed and important national and international books collections.
The APL is selling books enriched with family values, Islamic and modern thoughts.
The APL unveiled cover of its six new book collections on Friday which drew huge customers. The new 6 books are – “Medieval Political Thought” written by Dr. Muhammad Rafiqul Islam and Principal Md. Rafiqul Islam, “Labor and Industrial Law of Bangladesh” by Professor Dr. Mir Nazmul Karim, Muhammad Shahadat Hossain and Advocate Farzana Haque Nipa, Children’s book ” Janar majhey Ojana’ written by Jasmine Nahar and Edited by Professor Dr. Syeda Tahmina Akhter, Muhammad Shahadat Hossain’s Law affair’s book “Introduction to Criminology”, Professor Dr. Muhammad Abdur Rahman Anwari’s “Introduction to Islamic Dawah”, and a translate book, the worldwide popular book about good parenting “Parent-Child Relations: A Guide to Raising Children” written by world famous writer and thinker Dr. Hisham Al Talib, Dr. Abdulhamid Abusulaiman and Dr. Omar Altalib. The name of the book’s Bangla translation is “Parenting” (2nd part).
The cover unveiling ceremony of those six books was held at the unveiling stage at Suhrawardy Udyan. The event was presided over by Managing Director of APL and Country Representative of International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT). M. Abdul Aziz.
Professor Nakeeb M. Nasrullah of Law Department of Dhaka University, Professor Md. Akhtar Hossain Majumdar of Social Work Department of Rajshahi University, Academician and writer Abu Khaldun Mahmud, Writer and Researcher Dr. Mahbubur Rahman, writer Muhammad Abdul Hai, Poet Zakir Abu Jafar, Researcher and Philosopher Musa Al Hafiz, among others, were present and spoke.
Despite the newsprint price high, the number of new titles of the ongoing book fair rose to 2,865 on the twenty four consecutive days.
In 2022, a total of 3416 new titles were published in the fair, where it was 2,640 in 2021 and 4,919 books in 2020.
“Today, the quality of the poetry books are not so good. Besides, novels have a character, an opportunity to create a thinking mind but poetry do not have this,” Istique, a student of Dhaka College, said.
Nyeem, stall attendee of Annoprokash, said, “A large crowd draws every day at the stalls but it’s only for novels or story books. “
A number of 239 new titles were published on this day.
A prize giving ceremony of the Art Competition, Recitation and Music Competition for Children was also held.
