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Artists, poets, cultural activists, and fans of traditional Baul music singer Abul Sarker on Friday took to the streets to protest his arrest and demand his immediate and unconditional release.
The interim government recently arrested the king of Baul music (Moharaja Abul Sarkar) after an Islamist extremist group claimed that a song by Abul Sarkar insulted Islam. Abul Sarker's wife, Aleya Begum, denied the allegations, saying her husband is innocent. His fans and supporters gathered at the Central Shaheed Minar in the capital, Dhaka, and protested by singing songs by Abul Sarkar. UNESCO declared Bangladesh's traditional Baul music as Intangible Heritage of Humanity. Following the student-led uprising on August 5, 2024, radical Islamic groups have been carrying out attacks on various shrines, disrupting cultural activities, and attacking Bauls in Bangladesh. "The issue is very simple, you know, what we call the Pala in our Bengali cultural tradition, it has been evolving for quite a long time in the Bangladesh cultural tradition. Pala is a theatrical performance, so what Abul was uttering is a kind of dialogue; in the Pala, what happens is that the two parties fight over a particular topic. People extracted a few seconds of the Pala and used it mainly to provoke a certain reaction among the people. Of course, people have religious sentiments," Forhad Mozhar, a poet and an influential person of the current regime in Bangladesh, told ANI. "Even if he did it, it could have been solved very easily; we could have sat down, and Abul Sarkar could have explained that we use it because we have done it for the last hundreds or thousands of years. If it has bad sentiments, I am sorry for that. We told our law and order department. But unfortunately, they have also lodged a case against him that we think is very wrong. That has created serious repercussions as well," he added. "Some of the groups who claimed them are religious groups... even in the Islamic religion, you cannot ask for the death penalty without any judicial process. Any individual can claim that they will execute that. That's what happened, actually claimed that he is going to deliver the death penalty. Even to me, he will cut my bear and everything. These forces have emerged mainly after the 5th August, 2024," Mozhar said. "We have defeated the secular fascists. Religious fascism also emerged equally. Unfortunately, the present government failed to deal with them. In the beginning, they destroyed the mazars (Shrines) and beat people. Even Abul Sarkar's Bhakas, the people who love him, went to Manikgonj for a human chain in support of him; they were beaten and thrown into ponds. Many had been injured. What they have done!" he said. (ANI)
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