University Press Limited staff harassed over sale of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s memoirs

Two employees of the publishing house University Press Limited (UPL) were harassed and detained in Dhaka following objections to the sale of ‘The Unfinished Memoirs’, the autobiography of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

According to reports, individuals arrived at the Banglabazar outlet claiming the book was banned. The confrontation escalated when the group pulled down the shop’s shutter, padlocked the outlet, and took two employees, Aminul Islam and Humayun Kabir, to a police outpost. The employees were subsequently released.

UPL issued a statement clarifying that the book is not banned and that any such restriction would require a formal legal process. The publisher expressed that the incident was ‘extremely shameful and unfortunate for the nation’. Local police noted that the employees were released on the condition that the book would no longer be sold at that location. A group of citizens has since called for an impartial investigation and increased safety for booksellers across Bangladesh.