Staff Reporter : The Sylhet Metropolitan Police-SMP has cancelled the permission for a week-long book fair organized by the Publishers Council Sylhet, just a day before it was scheduled to begin.
The book fair was set to take place from Friday (April 24) to May 2 at the Sylhet Central Shaheed Minar premises. Permission for the event had been duly obtained from SMP.
However, SMP informed through a letter that the permission was revoked considering the overall law and order situation.
Meanwhile, in a press release, the Publishers Council stated that they have suffered significant losses as the permission was cancelled after completing all preparations for the fair.
The Publishers Council Sylhet also mentioned that a similar book fair, scheduled from February 7 to February 15 last year during the interim government period, had been cancelled citing the same reason. The council and writers have expressed concern that such a creative event has been obstructed even during the tenure of an elected government.
