Baul singer Abul Sarkar jailed in Manikganj on blasphemy allegation

Baul singer Abul Sarkar has been arrested in a case filed on charges of blasphemy and making derogatory remarks during a musical performance. He was produced before the Senior Judicial Magistrate Court in Manikganj yesterday evening. The judge later ordered that he be sent to jail.

Earlier yesterday afternoon, Mufti Md Abdullah, the imam of Ghior Bandar Mosque, filed the case naming Abul Sarkar as the accused. The complaint alleges that he insulted Islamic beliefs, hurt religious sentiments, and made derogatory comments with the intention of inciting communal unrest.

According to the case statement, on 4 November, during a folk performance at the Khala Pagli fair in the Jabra area of Ghior upazila, Manikganj, Baul singer Abul Sarkar made objectionable remarks about Islam and the creation of Almighty Allah. When videos of his comments spread on social media, it triggered widespread criticism and protests.

Following this, on Wednesday night, a team from Manikganj Detective Branch (DB) police detained Abul Sarkar from a musical event in Madaripur. He was brought to the district DB office yesterday morning.

In the afternoon, after Mufti Md Abdullah filed the case at Ghior Police Station naming him as the accused, Abul Sarkar was shown arrested in that case and produced before the Senior Judicial Magistrate Court in the evening. DB Inspector Rafiqul Islam confirmed the information.

Meanwhile, calling for stringent punishment for the Baul singer, a human chain and protest rally was held yesterday afternoon in front of the Manikganj Chief Judicial Magistrate Court under the banner of ‘Alems–Ulama and Tawhidi Janata’.

Bangladesh Khilafat Majlis Manikganj district unit president Mufti Abdullah Al Firoz, Mufti Abdul Hannan, Manikganj Central Mosque imam Mufti Mojibur Rahman, and Bangladesh Khilafat Majlis Sadar upazila organisational secretary Ramzan Mahmud, among others, addressed the gathering.

Speaking on the matter, Raju Sarkar, assistant artist to Abul Sarkar, said that a certain group is distorting the situation by circulating only partial excerpts of his performance on social media instead of the full context.

He said Abul Sarkar did not make any derogatory remarks about Almighty Allah; he had posed a question to a rival Baul singer about which among the three creations of Allah came first. In that event, he had spoken against fundamentalists. Enraged by this, the group circulated selective clips from his performance on social media, Raju claimed.