Bid to deface Tagore's graffiti: Ayash, 3 others shown arrested

Four people including ANM Ayash, member secretary of Rashtra Sanglap Forum, have been shown arrested in a case over the attempt to deface a graffiti of Rabindranath Tagore on a wall in front of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy in the capital's Segunbagicha area.

Officer-in-Charge of Shahbagh Police Station Moniruzzaman said police filed the case under the Penal Code this morning (11 October) and showed four arrestees as accused in the case.

They will be produced before a court in the afternoon, he said.

The three other arrestees are Rashtra Sanglap Forum's member Md Sakibul Hasan, 19; Md Sujon Mia, 18; and Marzia Khandaker Rimi, 27.

They were detained by police around 12:30pm yesterday amid a commotion in the Shilpakala Academy area.

Several activists of the forum went to the Shilpakala Academy premises around 11am yesterday and tried to cover the graffiti of Tagore with ink, triggering tension in the area.

A verbal altercation subsequently took place between Ayash and people present there.

As the situation escalated, police reached the spot and detained the four.

Later, the Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police took them into custody for questioning.

Police said further legal proceedings in the case are underway.

At the scene, a woman was also seen applying ink to Tagore's portrait before a police officer stepped in to stop her.

The woman said the group had gathered to protest against "Indian aggression".

On October 5, Dhaka South City Corporation removed illegal establishments from a footpath in Segunbagicha.

Following the clearance, portraits of 10 prominent personalities from the fields of art, literature and culture were painted on a wall along the footpath.

The figures included Zainul Abedin, Satyajit Ray, Rabindranath Tagore, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar and Kazi Nazrul Islam.