Published : 03 Nov 2026, 07:00 PM
Updated : 03 Nov 2026, 07:00 PM
An exhibition honouring Bangladesh’s four national leaders at the Liberation War Museum has been suspended shortly before its scheduled opening, after law-enforcing agencies raised “security concerns”.
Titled “Four National Leaders in the Struggle for Independence”, the exhibition was due to open at 4pm at the museum in Agargaon. Trustees Sarwar Ali and Mofidul Hoque said the decision followed police advice.
“Law-enforcing agencies informed us this afternoon that, for security reasons, it would be better to keep the exhibition closed. We postponed the opening ceremony following their advice,” Sarwar told bdnews24.com.
Several guests had arrived when 12 to 15 police personnel came shortly before the event and advised organisers not to proceed.
Tejgaon Division Deputy Commissioner Ibn-e-Mizan told bdnews24.com the programme had been planned without permission. The Liberation War affairs ministry had sought police assistance, he said.
Asked whether the event had been cancelled, he said the museum authorities had instructed that no programme should take place.
The exhibition was scheduled for Gallery 6 on the museum’s sixth floor. Former secretary Waliul Islam, an official of the wartime government, was due to speak. It was planned to run from Nov 3 to Nov 17.
Sarwar said it focused on the four leaders’ preparations for the Liberation War and their historic roles, rather than serving as a conventional Jail Killing Day event.
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was killed with most of his family on Aug 15, 1975.
On Nov 3, four close associates and leading organisers of the Liberation War -- Syed Nazrul Islam, Tajuddin Ahmad, M Mansur Ali and AHM Qamaruzzaman -- were murdered inside Dhaka Central Jail.
Sarwar said the museum rarely holds programmes on events after Dec 16.
Asked why authorities raised security concerns at the last moment, he said organisers had not sought an explanation and considered safety their highest priority.
He said such events generally did not require police permission and the exhibition had been publicised three or four days earlier, making the intervention unexpected.
