Local people will use Tetultala playground: Home Minister

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal on Thursday said Local people will use the Tetultala playground as before as per the instruction of the Prime Minister.

“No police station will be built at Tetultala playground in the city’s Kalabagan area as per the instruction of the Prime Minister,” the minister told reporters at the Secretariat.

However, the land will remain as police property and police will do the maintenance of the ground, he said.

“I saw that there was no place to play in the area. The Prime Minister also said that since there is no open space and there is no scope of entertainment the land should be kept as it is now. That is our decision,” said the minister.

But the minister also mentioned that it is not a suitable place for a playground. Asked where the Kalabagan police station will be built, the minister said, "We will see and will talk about later.”

“Nothing is happening right now. The construction work must be stopped.”

On Wednesday, the Home Minister cleared that Tetultala playground is now police property.

However, the decision regarding construction of a police station at an alternative place instead of Tetultala ground in the city’s Kalabagan area would be taken after discussions with the Prime Minister, he said while responding to questions from reporters after a meeting with some environmental activists.

Earlier, Kalabagan residents Syeda Ratna and her son were detained by police when she was live-streaming the construction of a boundary wall at the playground on Facebook around 11am on Sunday.

However, police freed Syeda Ratna and her son, nearly 13 hours after their detention on charges of "spreading hate speech" as she protested the construction of a police station on the playground at Kalabagan.

Different environmental organizations on Monday demanded a fair probe into the detention of local resident Syeda Ratna and her son for protesting against the construction of a police station.