On December 23, 2025, Bangladesh Udichi Shilpigoshthi publicly criticized the interim government for failing to take action against those who openly threatened and carried out attacks on cultural institutions and media houses. The criticism was voiced at a protest rally held in front of Udichi’s central office in Dhaka, organized in response to the arson attack on Udichi’s office and the earlier vandalism of Chhayanaut.
Speaking at the rally, Mahmud Selim, acting president of Udichi, said that individuals identifying as student and youth leaders had publicly called for attacks and arson against Udichi, Chhayanaut, and newspapers, yet no visible legal action had been taken. He questioned whether any of those who issued threats had been brought under the law, stating that the government appeared to be watching without intervention.
Referring to Udichi’s long history of repression, Mahmud Selim noted that since the organization’s founding in 1968, its members have survived bomb attacks and repeated assaults. He described the current violence as part of a continuum of attacks on freedom of expression, warning that prolonged inaction would only escalate public resistance. “People will unite and return to the streets against injustice,” he said.
Other speakers at the rally linked the attacks on cultural institutions and the media to a broader pattern of extremist violence. Student Union General Secretary Bahauddin Shuvo said that the same forces responsible for attacks on Prothom Alo, The Daily Star, Udichi, and Chhayanaut were also implicated in the killings of Dipu Chandra Das in Mymensingh and seven-year-old Ayesha in Lakshmipur, while attempting to label dissenting voices as politically aligned with the Awami League.
The rally concluded with a torchlight procession, as cultural activists, journalists, and civil society members called for accountability, protection of cultural spaces, and an end to the normalization of threats and violence against freedom of expression in Bangladesh
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