Month-long Ekushey Book Fair starts Monday amid tight security

With preparations almost completed, the month-long Amar Ekushey Book Fair is scheduled to begin on Monday.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the fair at 3pm at the Bangla Academy premises.

She will also hand over the Bangla Academy Literary Award 2015 to the recipients during the event.

The venue of the fair this year is twice as large as that of last year and has drawn at least 450 publishers.

Both the Academy section and the Suhrawardi Udyan section of the fair will have wi-fi facilities.

During the event, authors will be able to launch their new books at two spots -- at the Academy's Nazrul Mancha and at the Udyan.

Except for public holidays, the fair will remain open from 3pm to 8pm during the whole month of February.

On holidays, the opening hours will be from 11am to 8pm.

Opening times on Feb 21 will be 8am to 8pm.

The fair management’s committee member Jalal Ahmed told bdnews24.com that the venue was emptied at 6pm on Sunday. "The gates will open for all after the inaugural ceremony (on Monday)."

He said all preparations were done. "We hope to make the fair attractive."

The organisers say this year they are giving priority to security, recalling the brutal murder of secular writer and blogger Avijit Roy on a street near the TSC intersection in February last year.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia also told a press briefing on Sunday that writers, bloggers and publishers who have received threats or feel threatened will be provided with special security on request during the fair.

He said, "We are working to provide special protection for those threatened. Sometimes, they are guarded by plainclothes detectives, and sometimes by the local police stations."

The special measures follow attacks – some fatal -- on several writers, bloggers and publishers in Bangladesh in 2015.

This year, some 450 publishers have set up their stalls on both the Bangla Academy and Suhrawardy Udyan sections.

The Academy said their books will be sold at a 30 percent discount price while books of other publishers will be sold 25 percent cheaper than normal.