PID's puzzling photograph

The Awami League's rally at the Suhrawardy Udyan on Tuesday was attended by several lakh people.

Like some other newspapers, we published a photo of the rally, supplied digitally by the government's Press Information Department (It is to be noted that The Daily Star correspondents and photographers are not allowed to cover any events of the prime minister or the Awami League).

Unfortunately, the picture turned out to be photoshopped. As the rally was mammoth, we did not doubt the authenticity of the photograph. We came to realise it only afterwards.

Now this all begs the question: Why was it necessary at all for the PID to photoshop the image and supply it to different media outlets?