The screening of newly released film titled ‘Taandob’ halted on Tuesday afternoon at Auliabad in Tangail’s Kalihati due to security concerns amid protests allegedly by a local Islamist group.
Organisers of the screening alleged that they were forced to stop the screening after two and a half days due to lack of security as they received threats and the campaigning for the film was barred.
Earlier, leaders of the Parkhi Union Ulama Parishad on Friday brought out a protest procession against the screening. Later, a written application was submitted to the upazila nirbahi officer to stop screening of the film.
The screening of Taandob was organised by renting the Zila Parishad Community Centre-cum-Multipurpose Hall under the leadership of Kamruzzaman Saiful and Saju Mehedi. Organisers had the permission to screen the film at the hall for a month and paid rent for 10 days.
Saiful alleged that the banner of the commercial film directed by Raihan Rafi and released across the country on the occasion of Eid-ul-Azha was removed from in front of the hall by the Islamist group.
He received threats in various ways and he was forced to stop the screening due to lack of security, Saiful claimed.
Maulana Abdullah, a protester, claimed that academic activities in various educational institutions, including mosques and madrassahs, could be hampered and anti-social activities might take place.
For those reasons, a protest procession was organised and a memorandum was submitted to close the hall, he claimed.
Officer-in-charge of Kalihati police, Zakir Hossain, said that protesters came to him and he told them that he was not the one to make decisions on this matter.
Kalihati upazila nirbahi officer Khairul Islam said that he was on leave and he came to know about the matter.
The organisers were running the movie on rent but the opposition applied to his office to stop it, added the UNO.
Zila parishad chief executive officer Shafiqul Islam said that the hall was rented with some conditions, including halting the screening if the law and order situation deteriorated there.
Prominent film director Ashfaque Nipun on Wednesday protested at the issue on social media in a Facebook post on his official account.
In his post, he urged the interim government to take steps to ensure screening of the film in Tangail’s Kalihati and stop mob violence.
He also alleged that the interim government failed to handle the mob violence in different tourist and public places in its tenure.
