‘The Unfinished Memoirs’ Not Banned, Yet UPL Outlet Locked in Banglabazar

DHAKA: A controversy has emerged after the Banglabazar sales outlet of University Press Limited (UPL) was locked and two of its employees were taken to a police outpost following a dispute over the sale of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s The Unfinished Memoirs. UPL says the book is not banned and that it has received no government or court order restricting its sale. A senior police official has also said there is no restriction on the sale of the book.

According to a statement issued by UPL, two men went to the publisher’s Banglabazar outlet at around 5:30pm on September 28, 2026, and asked to buy The Unfinished Memoirs. After the employees produced the book, the men objected to its sale and claimed that the book was banned.

According to UPL, the men were told that the book was not banned. They nevertheless created a disturbance and gathered people around the outlet. At one point, the shutter of the sales outlet was pulled down and locked. Two UPL employees, Aminul Islam and Humayun Kabir, were also taken to the Faridabad Police Outpost. They were later released. Faridabad Police Outpost in-charge Shuvo Baroi said the matter had been settled between the two sides and the sales outlet was subsequently reopened.

No government order or court directive banning the book has been publicly identified. UPL has also said that it is not aware of any government or court decision banning the book. The publisher said any decision to ban a book must follow a specific legal process and that it would comply if a competent authority formally imposed such a restriction.

A senior official of the Lalbagh division, speaking on condition of anonymity, said The Unfinished Memoirs is not banned and there is no restriction on its sale. The official also said that if the employees had been released on the condition that they would no longer sell the book, such a condition would not have been appropriate.

Sutrapur Police Station Officer-in-Charge Matiur Rahman said the two UPL employees were not taken to the police station but to the Faridabad Police Outpost, from where they were later released. He also said that The Unfinished Memoirs had not been reprinted after 2024. According to him, the employees were released on the condition that the book would no longer be sold. He also said no complaint had been filed with the police station over the incident.

UPL said it has faced pressure over different books during different governments. The publisher, however, said it had not compromised its professional standards and publishing policies. It also said that expert assessment is taken into consideration when publishing or marketing books.

According to UPL, The Unfinished Memoirs is an important book for understanding Bangladesh’s history and the context of the Liberation War. The publisher said it would comply with the law if a competent government authority or court formally banned the book through due process.

Following the incident, the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST) called for an investigation. The organisation said several individuals behaved aggressively at UPL’s Banglabazar showroom on September 28 while demanding that the sale of the book be stopped. They allegedly pulled down the shutter and harassed two sales employees. BLAST also called for an investigation into the role of police over allegations that the employees were taken to and detained at the police outpost. It also called for the safety of UPL employees, publishers and booksellers to be ensured.

BLAST said that anyone who disagrees with, objects to or criticises the content of a book has the right to express those views peacefully, reasonably and through lawful means. No individual or group should obstruct the publication, circulation or sale of a book through threats, pressure or force, it said. Any decision to ban, withdraw or restrict a publication should be based on a clear legal basis and follow due process, according to the organisation.

The incident has raised questions about what legal basis an individual or group would have to demand that the sale of a book be stopped if the book has not been formally banned. Questions have also been raised over why the two UPL employees were taken to the police outpost and whether any condition was imposed on their release preventing them from selling the book. It remains unclear whether those who claimed that the book was banned were acting on the basis of any government notification, court order or other legal document.

Writer Asif Bin Ali has analysed the incident in one of his articles as an example of how the circulation of a book can be obstructed without a formal ban. He argues that even when a book remains legally available, publishers or sellers may stop stocking or selling it because of pressure or fear of possible trouble, potentially creating a situation of self-censorship. This is the writer’s analysis and not the finding of any government investigation.

The Unfinished Memoirs is an autobiographical work by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. UPL was involved in publishing the Bengali edition, which was first published in 2012. Recent reports say the book was last reprinted in 2024. Based on publicly available information, no government order or court directive banning The Unfinished Memoirs has so far been identified.