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The University Press Limited (UPL) has protested the locking of its Banglabazar sales outlet and the detention of two employees over the sale of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s book The Unfinished Memoirs.
In a statement issued on Tuesday (September 29), UPL said several people arrived at its Banglabazar showroom at around 5:30pm on Monday and behaved aggressively.
The publishing house said the individuals pressured it to stop selling The Unfinished Memoirs, claiming that the book had been illegally banned. At one point, they pulled down the shop’s shutter, harassed two UPL sales employees and took them to the Faridabad police outpost, where they were detained for some time.
The employees were later released, UPL said.
Saying that the book has not been banned by the government or any court, UPL said, “Any book can be banned only by following a specific legal process. To our knowledge, no such process has taken place in this case. If any competent authority bans the book in accordance with the law, UPL will take appropriate action.”
The publisher said it had consistently stood its ground despite pressure from different quarters.
It cited several past instances, including pressure during the previous government over books by Moudud Ahmed and Professor Asif Nazrul, as well as objections to a book on the history of Jamaat-e-Islami by Barrister Abdur Razzaq. UPL also said it had protested the banning of books by Adarsha publishers at book fairs during the previous government.
UPL said every book it publishes undergoes review by independent reviewers to maintain quality and that it has “no history of withdrawing books under unjust pressure.”
Meanwhile, two young men went to UPL’s Banglabazar outlet on Monday afternoon and asked to buy The Unfinished Memoirs. After the book was brought out, they allegedly gathered people, claiming that the outlet was selling a banned book. The outlet was subsequently locked, and the two employees were detained.
Officer-in-Charge of Sutrapur Police Station Motiur Rahman told the media that the employees were not taken to the police station. They were taken to the Faridabad police outpost and later released from there.