STAFF CORRESPONDENT

Wearing masks in the Baishakhi Shobhajatra will be barred, while sky lanterns, fireworks, gas balloons, and vuvuzelas will remain banned nationwide as the government tightens security for Pahela Baishakh celebrations this year.

All programmes across the country will also have to end by 6:00pm, and no new visitors will be allowed into major venues after 5:00pm, under a set of directives issued at a law and order meeting held at the home ministry conference room at the Secretariat on April 8.

The meeting, chaired by Senior Secretary Monjur Morshed Chowdhury, decided on the measures to ensure peaceful celebrations of Bangla New Year 1433 as well as the new year festivals of the Chakma, Marma, Tripura, Garo, and other ethnic communities.

Security will be especially tight around Dhaka University’s Faculty of Fine Arts and the Baishakhi Shobhajatra, one of the main attractions of the celebrations

SEE PAGE 11 COL 5