Bangla New Year celebrations to end before sunset, says Home Minister Kamal

Alarmed by the sexual assault on women during last year’s celebrations, the government has said all public Bangla New Year festivities this year will have to close by sunset.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal told the media on Sunday that all outdoor events on Pahela Baishakh must finish by 5pm on Apr 14.

“All types of outdoor public gatherings will be prohibited after 6pm,” he said after a meeting with the top officials of the law-enforcing agencies.

Wearing masks and blowing horns like Vuvuzela will also be banned during the daylong festivities which include the ‘Mangal Shobhajatra’, the signature Bangla New Year rally, on the Dhaka University campus.

“Vuvuzela creates an obnoxious sound. It will be banned,” said the minister.

“We cannot stop the festivities. But we request everyone to wrap it all up by 5pm. Law enforcers will move to clear all public places by 6pm,“ Kamal said after the meeting on security for Apr 14, the first day on the Bangla calendar.

He said measures will be in place so that festivities can take place without disruption.

The minister said the security agencies will assist the deputy commissioners in all districts across Bangladesh for trouble-free celebrations.

The meeting was attended by the IGP, RAB chief, head of other security agencies as well representatives of Dhaka City Corporation.

Mughal Emperor Akbar had introduced the Bengali calendar 500 years ago to facilitate tax collection in the then 'Subah Bangla', much of which is now in Bangladesh.

Over the course of time, that has become an integral part of Bengali culture as the Bangla New Year celebrations.

Apart from the ‘Mangal Shobhajatra’, leading cultural troupe Chhayanaut’s programme at Ramna Batamul in the early morning on Pahela Baishakh has also become the essential event of the celebrations over the last four decades.

Every year, the government generally imposes restrictions on New Year’s Eve celebrations on the night of Dec 31, the last day of the year in Gregorian calendar, and asks to end all events by sunset.

No such restrictions had been imposed on Pahela Baishakh celebrations earlier as most of it are daytime events.

But after the BNP-led alliance’s nationwide violent blockade and shutdowns marred last year’s first three months, police had urged everyone to wrap up the open-air programmes by 5pm.

Amidst all this, several women were sexually assaulted by some youths at the gate of Suhrawardy Udyan near Dhaka University’s TSC intersection in the evening of Apr 14 last year.

The incident in the presence of police had created a firestorm across the country and on the social media as student and human rights organisations erupted in relentless protests.

Police later said they had identified eight offenders from the CCTV camera footage, but managed to catch only one of them.

A court in March this year had ordered the Police Bureau of Investigation to reinvestigate sexual assaults on the women.