The game stopped midway for fear of an attack on Shilpakala: CEO Jamil

Desh Natak theater troupe’s play “Nityopuran” was stopped midway at the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy in Dhaka yesterday after a group of people staged a protest in front of the academy gates.

Describing the incident at a virtual briefing today (November 3), Shilpakala Academy CEO Syed Jameel Ahmed said the decision to stop the play midway was taken to ensure the “safety of the audience”.

The incident drew harsh criticism on social media.

The CEO of Shilpakala explained that, given the circumstances, he feared that the academy itself would become a “target for attack.”

“Recently, 22 branches of Shilpakala Academy across the country were attacked. It weighed me down. When the audience was in the hall, I thought, what if the protesters attack them? Keeping the safety of the audience in mind, we decided to stop the show midway and I went inside and apologized to the audience,” he said.

Eyewitnesses present said that at around 6 pm yesterday, a group of people started protesting in front of the Shilpakala gate, calling Ehshanul Aziz Baba of Desh Natak an “accomplice of the Awami League.”

Later, Jamil Ahmed went and calmed down the protesters and the play later resumed.

But the protesters regrouped in front of the gates and began protesting again.

Narrating the incident, Jameel said, “I explained to them that more than 200 Desh Natak members were actively involved in the mass uprising in July-August. Some also suffered gunshot wounds.

“At first they agreed (to what I said) and the play resumed. But later they started protesting again… Some people climbed over the wall and entered. When the gate was broken, we decided to stop the performance altogether after talking with the Desh members. Natak.”

Earlier on October 17, Ehshanul Aziz Babu of Desh Natak shared a post on Facebook which read, “Unite to save the country. Let us chant ‘Joy of Bangla’ and oppose these Razakars who are against Bangladesh and independence.”

He attached an edited photograph showing some of the caretaker government’s advisers wearing Jinnah caps, calling them “Razakars”.

According to CEO Jameel, the post sparked protests that led to the disruption of the performance.

“This post was in poor taste. I told Baba about this. I advised all of them not to post such posts on Facebook and instead criticize the government in their plays,” he said.