The month-long Amar Ekushey Book Fair begins in Dhaka today amid fool proof security.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the book fair on the Bangla Academy premises at 3:00pm.

British poet and Jibanananda Das translator Joe Winter and Czech Republic writer-researcher Ribek Martin will be present at the programme as distinguished guests while Cultural Affairs Minister Asaduzzaman Noor as a special guest.

The Bangla Academy Award will be also distributed at the opening ceremony.

The theme of this year fair is ‘Diamond Jubilee of Bangla Academy’ marking the 60 years of the institution.

There will be a seminar at the main stage of the fair at 4pm every day from 2 February to 29 February.

Like the previous year, the venue of the fair has been extended to nearby Suhrawardy Udyan.

The authorities have allotted a total of 651 units — 111 at the Bangla Academy ground to 82 organisatons and 540 to 320 organisations at Suhrawardy Udyan.

Besides, 15 pavilions have been allocated for 14 publishing houses, including Bangla Academy.

Meanwhile, Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) has taken all-out security measures in and around the book fair venue to avert any unpleasant incident in the upcoming fair.

A four-tier security has been arranged on the occasion.

There will be enough lighting in and around the fair venue as the spot where blogger Avijit Roy was killed last year had the shadows of darkness.

Special security will be provided to writers, bogglers and publishers if they feel insecure during the Ekushey Fook Fair, said Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia on Sunday.

‘We’ve changed this year’s security system in the wake of previous incidents. There’ll be enough light in and around the book fair for security reasons,’ he told a press briefing about the fair security at DMP Media Centre.

Everyone will have to enter the fair venue through an archway and female police have been posted at every entrance for checking female visitors, he said.

A total of 200 CC cameras and nine watchtowers have been set up at the fair venue from where security personnel will observe the fair activities with binoculars.

An adequate number of police will remain deployed round the clock in three shifts, while detectives will be present at the book fair to prevent any kind of untoward incidents, said the DMP Commissioner.

Avijit Roy, son of noted physicist Ajoy Roy and founder of Mukto-Mona blog, was killed and his wife Rafida Afrin Banya injured seriously as criminals stabbed them near TSC on the Dhaka University Campus on February 26, 2015.

Three other bloggers and a publisher were also hacked to death later allegedly by the radical groups, raising concern about the security of the writers and bloggers.