Controversy over singing at Puja Mandap: Case filed against 7

A case was filed against seven people including six members of Chattogram Cultural Academy over singing Islamic songs on the stage of a Puja Mandap in Chattogram city on Friday.

Sukanta Bikash Mahajan, treasurer of the Chattogram Puja Celebration Committee, filed the lawsuit at the port city’s Kotwali police station in the evening.

Six members of Chittagong Cultural Academy - Shahidul Karim, Nurul Islam, Abdullah Iqbal, Md Roni, Golam Mustafa and Md Mamun – performed songs on the stage of the Durga Puja event at JM Sen Hall in Rahmatganj on Thursday evening after being invited by Sajal Dutta, joint general secretary of the Puja celebration committee.

All of them were accused in the case, and Sajal Dutta was expelled from the committee since then.

Police have arrested two people from different areas of the city in connection with this event. They were: Shahidul Karim, a teacher at Tanzimul Ummah Madrasah and Nurul Islam, a teacher at Darul Irfan Academy.

Kotwali police station officer-in-charge (OC) Fazlul Quader Chowdhury said manhunt is underway to arrest the remaining accused.

He told Prothom Alo the case was filed on allegation of hurting the religious sentiment of the Hindus through the lyrics of the songs.

According to the case statement, the Metropolitan Puja Celebration Committee organised a cultural evening with various musical groups on the JM Sen Hall premises on the occasion of the Durja Puja.

People of the Hindu religion started gathering at the Puja Mandap after Thursday evening and enjoying the event. Prior to this, Puja celebration committee joint general secretary Sajal Dutta (expelled since the event) already invited a musical group of the Chattogram Cultural Academy to perform songs.

In line with the invitation, a group of the Chattogram Cultural Academy came to the event and performed two songs on the day of the event (Thursday evening). As the lyrics of one of the songs was deemed to be hurting the religious sentiment of the Hindus, the puja celebration committee was about to stop the musical performance immediately but did not do so thinking about the communal harmony.

Meanwhile, video clips of one of the songs (gazal) performed at the event started making rounds on social media, rising tension among the Hindus, as well as drawing various reactions from different people.

Currently, tension and anger prevails among Hindus in Chattogram centring the gazals. With a similar motive, the accused performed the gazal with hateful lyrics by demeaning the religious belief and sentiment of the Hindus out of vengeance in order to create chaos at the religious event.

As a result, fear looms large over destroying the communal harmony across the country.

Regarding this, plaintiff Sukanta Bikash Mahajan told Prothom Alo Sajal Dutt did not inform them that the artistes of the Chattogram Cultural Academy will perform at the event and it was not at the schedule either.

He demanded arrest of the accused and exemplary punishments so that no such incident repeats in future, and that must be done to create an atmosphere where everyone can live together.

Prior to this, the police said at a press conference that two people were detained and were being questioned. The police also were looking into whether there were any possible ulterior motives behind this incident.

Some of the witnesses said six members of the cultural organisation named Chattogram Cultural Academy performed two songs on the stage of this Durga Puja Mandap.

One of those two songs was an Islamic song titled “Shudhu Musalmaner Lagi Asheniko Islam”. As reported by a source, the organisation is supported by Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami.

When video footage of this incident went viral on social media, it garnered extensive criticism.

Under those circumstances, deputy commissioner of Chattogram Farida Khanam went to the Puja Mandap around 10:30 pm on Friday night. She promised to arrest the people involved within 48 hours.