Police force to cover slogan against ‘misrule’ with black cloth

Members of Narayanganj Cultural Alliance claimed that the police put pressure on them to use a black cloth to cover the banner of their cultural programme, held marking the International Mother Language Day in Chashara, Narayanganj on Tuesday.

The banner read, ‘The saying of the 21st, be gone misrule’. The members of the alliance alleged that the officer-in-charge (OC) of the Narayanganj sadar model police station Anisur Rahman put pressure on them to remove the banner.

Later, the cultural activists had to cover the banner to go ahead with the programme held at the Shaheed Minar in Chashara.

The president of the cultural alliance Bhabani Shankar Roy told Prothom Alo, “Before the programme began, the Sadar police station’s OC pressured us to remove the banner. Thinking of the children, who would perform in the programme, we decided not to remove the banner. Instead we covered it with a black cloth.”

Shankar felt it was an attack on freedom of speech.

He said, “Who would have a problem with the word misrule? The ones who are doing it. This is a slogan we use for many protests. I don’t know why the matter was treated in this way.”

OC Anisur told Prothom Alo, the word ‘misrule’ in the banner was inciting negative reactions and was putting the event at risk of an attack. That’s why the police requested them to remove that slogan from the banner and then carry on with their programme. But the OC denied the allegation of putting pressure on the organisers.

The alliance’s general secretary Shaheen Mahmud said, “Police did this at the behest of a certain quarter. This group has committed crimes like the murder of Tawqi under the protection of the administration. That’s why we had to cover our banner with a black cloth to hold our programme. We didn’t make any mistake by writing misrule in the banner. Because we haven’t yet gotten justice for Tawqi’s murder.”

Narayanganj Cultural Alliance’s adviser and Tawqi’s father Rafiur Rabbi also responded to the incident saying, “The country is under misrule. It’s not a secret any more."

“We want to be free of this misrule. The ideals of 21 February is to stand up against the misrule of the rulers. But they have repeatedly tried to squash the rights of the people under their boots. But they have failed,” he added.