Photojournalists detained at BOU for taking snaps of tree felling
Staff Correspondent
The authorities of Bangladesh Open University (BOU) yesterday held and locked up two photojournalists in an office room on its Gazipur campus for around seven hours as they were taking pictures of valuable trees felled on the campus. The photojournalists are Shawkat Jamil, senior photographer of The Daily Star and Indrajit Ghosh of The New Age. However, after police arrived at the scene at 10:00pm, the BOU authorities released the two journalists. Earlier, at around 3:30pm, security guards of the university took them to a room saying the BOU authority wanted to talk to them. The BOU authorities sold 90 trees worth around several lakh taka for only Tk 40,000, said the sources. The trees were sold to four different buyers through an open bid, but involved under-the-table transactions, a number of university officials alleged. Swapan Miah of Bismillah Furniture Mart, one of the buyers, admitted that the actual value of the trees is higher than what his business paid for. He was told that the trees were being chopped down to make room for a garden. An engineer working for the university, Ekramul Huq, said the trees had no significance and those were chopped down to slash the density of tress and make breathing space for mango trees for better growth. A gardener however said the trees were cut so that no one can hide behind the trunk of those trees and to have a better view of the whole campus from the tower on top of the vice chancellor's (VC) residence. Campus sources alleged that VC Dr M Ershadul Bari had his eyes on the trees and made the move to make a quick buck out of the sale. The VC however refused to talk to the press on the issue. After the journalists were held, the public relations officer of BOU could not be reached for comments either.
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