Journalists of Natore Press Club in a press conference yesterday gave a seven-day ultimatum to the deputy commissioner (DC) of Natore to withdraw his order of cancellation of the declaration of 'Dainik Uttarbanga Barta'.

They also threatened tough action programmes including boycott of coverage of news on the DC's office if the cancellation order is not withdrawn by July 14.

Advocate Khondokar Zubair Hossain and advocate Motahar Hossain Shahjada, vice president and general secretary respectively of Natore Press Club, addressed the conference among others.

The speakers strongly protested the order and said the decision was taken only to please the influential circle of the ruling party.

The cancellation order on Thursday has been the talk of the town here evoking strong resentments from different quarters including allegations of political foul play.

Sources alleged that the order of the DC was influenced by Deputy Minister advocate Ruhul Kuddus Talukdar Dulu from Natore.

During a monthly meeting on law and order on June 22 at the deputy commissioner's conference room, members of the law and order committee told the deputy minister

that the Uttarbanga Barta had run a report that said BNP cadres had set afire the house of Chatni Union Awami League president Tofazzal Hossain Sarkar and threatened to kidnap his school-going daughter.

"As soon as the issue of the report was raised in the meeting, the minister turned to DC Sadar Uddin Ahmed and asked him why he had

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n't initiated the process of shutting down the newspaper as instructed months ago," a member of the law and order committee informed The Daily Star.

"I want to see the declaration of the newspaper cancelled the next time I visit Natore," the source preferring anonymity said quoting the minister.

Following the unofficial order of the minister, the DC, after about three months since the first show cause notice on the newspaper was issued on March 27, began the process of cancellation of its declaration.

On June 24, Ratan Kumar Roy, ADC (general) issued a second show cause notice against the editor and publisher of the only daily of Natore.

In the notice, Roy informed the editor for the first time that his answer to the first showcause notice was unsatisfactory. So he was being asked again to respond to the notice as to why the declaration of the newspaper will not be canceled as the newspaper was neither published nor supplied to the office of the DC regularly. Also, the wrong printing of the names of the head of

the state and the government was listed as the other reason behind issuance of the notice.

On March 26, the day before the first show cause notice was issued, the newspaper in a lead news item had wrongly printed the name of the country's president as Justice Shahabuddin Ahmed and that of the prime minister as Sheikh Hasina.

The newspaper authorities said they had apologised twice for the mistake and dismissed the persons responsible for the glitch, but the DC nonetheless issued the showcause notice.

Talking to this correspondent, advocate Hanif Ali Sheikh, editor and publisher of the Uttarbanga Barta and also general secretary of the district Awami League, claimed that the reason behind the cancellation of the declaration was political.

Meanwhile, apart from Natore Press Club, other local press forums and socio-cultural organisations including Zila Press Club of Natore, Northern Federal Journalists' Association and the district Human Rights organisation expressed their deep concern over the matter and demanded immediate withdrawal of the cancellation order.