Home
+
Published : 21 Jan 2026, 01:47 PM
The interim government has relieved Afsana Begum from her position as director of the Jatiya Grantha Kendra “without providing any explanation”.
On Tuesday, the Ministry of Public Administration issued a notification cancelling the remaining term of her contract, which began on Sept 5, 2024.
At the time of the decision, she was attending a four-day training workshop outside Dhaka with 25 colleagues.
On Wednesday morning, she told bdnews24.com: “Three days of the four-day training have passed. At around 9.30pm [on Tuesday], a colleague informed me that the government had removed me. I am now returning to Dhaka.”
She added that she had no prior notice of the termination. “This was done without any explanation.
“The government has the authority to end appointments, and it has exercised that right. There is nothing more I can say.”
Afsana noted that several of her tasks remain incomplete. “I had a two-year plan for my work. Now I must leave some tasks unfinished.”
Her successor is expected to be AHM Sakhawat Ullah, known as poet Sakhawat Tipu.
He told bdnews24.com on Wednesday morning that he has not yet received any official notification of the appointment.
Afsana Begum completed her undergraduate and postgraduate studies at Jahangirnagar University before pursuing a Master’s in International Development Management at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom.
She has authored 24 books, including children’s and young adult literature such as “Protichhaya”, “Bedonar Amra Shontan”, “Ami Athoba Amar Chhaya”, and “Din-goto Kopotota”.
She has also translated works by Nadine Gordimer, William Faulkner, Julio Cortázar, Alice Munro, Isaac Asimov, and Fidel Castro.
In 2014, the fiction writer bagged the GEMCON Literary Award.
