Police arrest two, seize loudspeaker over playing Mar 7 Bangabandhu speech in public

Four others have briefly been held at Dhanmondi 32

Police have detained two people, including a former Dhaka University student, for publicly playing Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s historic Mar 7 speech at Chankharpul intersection in Old Dhaka.

The arrests took place near Dhaka Medical College Hospital around 3:30pm, with authorities seizing the loudspeaker used to broadcast the address.

One of the detainees, Asif Ahmed, a physics student from the 2018–19 DU session, was reportedly the first to be apprehended.

A local shopkeeper said he noticed the two men playing the speech when opening his shop around 3pm and saw them taken away by police.

Earlier in the day, four people had been detained at Dhanmondi 32 while attempting to pay tribute to the historic speech.

They were later sent to court under the Anti-Terrorism Act.

Hours later, a small procession emerged in Moghbazar, where four men and women marched through Hatirjheel via the FDC gate, carrying portraits of Sheikh Mujib and Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina while broadcasting the speech.

Actress Misty Shubhash, participating in the procession, said: “I have listened to this speech every March 7 since childhood.

“I didn’t hear it last year, so we came out to the street playing it.”

She added that the group faced no serious obstruction from bystanders.

Mar 7, the day Sheikh Mujib delivered his electrifying call for independence in 1971, has been recognised by UNESCO as part of the world’s documentary heritage since 2017.

Traditionally, it was marked with elaborate programmes during the Awami League’s 15-year rule, but this year, the commemoration has unfolded under a sharply different political landscape following the August 2024 student-led uprising.