Farhad Mazhar announces baul conference in Manikganj, says he’ll ‘take the beating’ if attacked
Poet and thinker Farhad Mazhar has expressed strong indignation over the arrest of baul singer “bayati maharaj” Abul Sarker, as well as Sunday’s attack on his followers in Manikganj. He has also declared that a future conference of bauls will be held in Manikganj.
He was speaking at a protest gathering in front of the National Press Club in Dhaka, organised by Sadhuguru Bhakta O Oli-Awliya Ashekan Parishad on Monday afternoon, to demand the release of Abul Sarker and to protest the assault on baul artistes.
Declaring that the next grand assembly of bauls, fakirs and sadhus would take place in Manikganj, he said, “Those in Manikganj who have been beating these harmless bauls, I shall be there. You can beat me; I shall take the beating. We do not retaliate. But we shall leave you with a lesson.”
Abul Sarker was arrested last Thursday in a case filed by an imam from Ghior alleging “defamation of religion”. He was subsequently sent to jail. When his followers organised a protest programme on Sunday, a group of people under the banner ‘Ulema, Scholars and Tauhidi Janata of Manikganj District’ attacked them.
Farhad Mazhar said, “What you are propagating in the name of Islam has nothing to do with Islam. You imagine something to be correct, you think this is in the Qur’an, you think this is in the Hadith — but it is not.”
Condemning violence as antithetical to Islam, he added, “Those who commit injustice and violence against innocent people can never claim to be followers of the Prophet. I appeal to you all: stand with us and continue this struggle with us as a powerful religio–fascistic current strikes at our traditions.”
Warning those who are attempting to destabilise Bangladesh for political gain, he said, “You are plotting to cast Bangladesh into an even deeper abyss. Beware. Conspiracies do not remain hidden forever.”
Addressing the political parties, Farhad Mazhar said, “From the NCP (National Citizen Party) to the BNP (Bangladesh Nationalist Party) and even Jamaat (Jamaat-e-ISlami), I say this to all of you: if, for the sake of votes, you fail to oppose injustice, if you choose to stand with the oppressors, do not think that the people of this country will bring collaborators of tyranny to power. The July mass uprising was a struggle of the oppressed against the oppressors. If you do not stand with today’s oppressed – the bauls, the fakirs, the sadhus — then neither Allah nor the people of this country will forgive you.”
‘Those who attacked us are the ones who filed the case’
Addressing the protest, Aleya Begum, wife of baul artist Abul Sarkar, alleged that not only was her husband arrested on fabricated charges of defaming religion, but her sons were also assaulted in Manikganj.
She said, “Those who struck us — they are the ones now going on Facebook Live claiming bauls attacked them. What outrageous lies! They even said, ‘Catch each caul and slaughter them one by one.’ Such audacity! Who has emboldened them to speak like this?”
Describing her experience at the police station, Aleya Begum added, “The very people who assaulted us filed complaints against the bauls at the police station. The police summoned my sons. They wanted a ‘settlement’. They registered the case the mullahs filed, but when I went to lodge a complaint, they were procrastinating. They said, ‘Wait a bit, what’s the rush? A complaint will be enough.’”
Alleging that the police took the side of the attackers, she said, “Eventually I saw the OC leaving with them. When I said I’m Aleya Begum, Abul Sarker’s wife, he replied, ‘Fine, you have come; leave a written complaint’, and then left with them. In the end, I didn’t get much support from the police.”
Other speakers alleged that since 5 August last year, the interim government has failed to take effective action despite repeated warnings regarding the destruction of shrines.
Speakers included journalist Arif Rahman, baul devotee Shaheen Sarkar, Sufi Belal Nuri, Sufism Universal Foundation chairman Touhidul Islam, political activist Abdul Majid, filmmakers Manzurul Haque and Akram Khan, film teacher Shakira Parvin, writer Astik Arzu, human rights activist Muntasir Rahman, and the Bangladesh Supreme Party’s joint secretary general Ibrahim Mia, among others.