Prothom Alo burned

Students and people have burned copies of daily Prothom Alo in protest at a story that ‘dishonourably represented’ female protesters of Shahbagh’s ‘Ganajagaran Mancha’.

Students set fire to copies of the popular Bengali daily in front of TSC at Dhaka University on Monday.

Sadnan Sakib, who was one of the protest organisers, told bdnews24.com, “We have burned copies of Prothom Alo in protest at the story titled ‘TV Camerar Shamne Meyeti’ (the girl in front of TV cameras) by author Hasnat Abdul Hye published in its Bengali New Year special on Sunday.”

Sakib a student of finance at the university, is an organiser of a platform to protect rights of students and an active participant of Ganajagaran Mancha – the movement against war criminals and religious fanatics.

Prothom Alo has apologised for publishing the story. Protesters on Monday said the story presents a ‘distorted’ image of female protesters of the Shahbagh movement and demanded that those responsible for its publication be brought to justice.

Sakib also demanded that the national awards its author Hye had received be revoked.

“We know the author has received the Bangla Academy Award and Ekushey Padak. Let those be retracted from the author for this extremely reactionary piece of writing.”

The story received widespread criticism on social media websites after its release on Sunday.