Dhaka jail opened for public

Authorities opened the 228-year-old former Dhaka Central Jail in Nazimuddin Road of Dhaka for all today.

The old central jail, which was significant for many important historical events for the nation, will hold a five-day-long photo exhibition and will remain open for the visitors until November 5.

People will be able to visit inside the jail by paying an entry fee of Tk 100 from today.

“We have already decorated the Bangabandhu memorial museum and the national four leaders’ memorial museum inside the jail. The government has planned to set up this jail as a place for the peoples’ attraction for historical and entertaining events,” said Inspector General of Prisons Brig Gen Syed Iftekhar Uddin while addressing as the chair at the inauguration programme for the photo exhibition.

In this jail, Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the four national leaders-- Syed Nazrul Islam, acting president of Bangladesh government in exile in 1971; Tajuddin Ahmad, prime minister of the same government; Capt M Mansur Ali, finance minister; and AHM Quamaruzzaman, minister for home affairs, relief and rehabilitation-- spent many years in imprisonment during their political careers.

It is historically important for the nation as the four Liberation War heroes were brutally killed by some army officers inside the old central jail on November 3 in 1975 after the assassination of the Father of the Nation along with his many of his family members and relatives on August 15 in the same year.

It is also where some of the top war criminals were imprisoned and executed.

All the inmates from the old central jail were transferred to the newly-built central jail in Keraniganj on July 29.

Now, the government is planning to set up a training institute, a park and a museum on the premises of the more than 200-year-old Dhaka jail that once housed so many of history's famous and infamous figures. There will also be schools and shopping malls built there.

The jail authorities today arranged the inauguration programme where Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith spoke as the chief guest.

He remembered his memory of staying in this jail in 1955 when he was a student of Dhaka University.

Home Minister Asaduzzman Khan spoke as the special guest and said the government is planning to rebuild the old jail as a historical and entertaining place for Dhaka dwellers.

Meanwhile, the jail has been decorated with photographs and memorabilia of Bangabandhu, the four national leaders and some other political leaders after it was opened for all today.

Soon after the entrance through the main gate,

The visitors will find a replica of Bangabandhu’s spectacles and smoking pipe after entering through the main gate. The memorial photographs have been hung from the three walls of four separate rooms for the visitors.

The visitors will also find a wallpaper where handwritten letters and documents of Bangabandhu’s life in prison have been kept. Monuments of the Father of the Nation and the four national leaders have been placed on the two sides inside the jail. The prisoners’ buildings have been named after some major rivers of the country like Padma, Meghna, Jamuna, etc.

The jail authorities are also thinking about giving people the “opportunity” to have a taste of life behind bars for a day or two for a nominal fee, said IG of Prisons earlier said at a press conference on October 28.