Bangladesh: Jamaat-Shibir forcefully perform Islamic song in Durga Puja festival

Sanjoy Kumar Barua

A group of Jammat- Shibir extremist fanatics performed Islamic music at Durga Puja festival in Bangladesh’s Chittagong district.

Hindu community leaders alleged that some members of the Islamic fanatics forcefully performed Islamic songs at historical JM Sen Hall Puja Mandap on Thursday evening.

After several times attempt Jammat and Islami Chhatra Shibir leaders couldn’t be reached.

At least three eyewitnesses who were seeking anonymity said, A group of Jamaat-Shibir leaders and activists went to the Mandap at around 6:30 pm while some of them forcefully went to the stage and performed Islamic music.

Five people were seen holding a microphone and performing the Islamic song in a video which has gone viral on Facebook.

The devotees who were present there expressed anger and demand immediate arrest of the culprits.

When asked, Mohammad Liakat Ali Khan, Deputy police commissioner of Chittagong Metropolitan Police said,” A group of Jammat and Islamic Chhatra Shibir performed Islamic music in Durga Puja festival with the permission from the Puja celebration committee.”

“We will take action against the alleged persons if we get complain from Hindu community people”, the police official said.

Sharadiya Durga Puja, the largest Hindu festival in Bangladesh, started Wednesday under a cloud of concern following recent acts of attacks and vandalism.

Reports of idol desecration in various regions have raised concerns about the safety of religious minorities.

On Tuesday, the Islamic fanatics damaged five idols at the Sajjankanda District Road Transport Owner Oikya Parishad temple in Rajbari.

This is the latest incident of vandalism of Durga idols reported in Bangladesh.

Advocate Rana Dasgupta, general secretary of Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Oikya Parishad, said, “In the last 15 days, idols of Durga Puja have been damaged in 19 Puja mandaps in 14 districts of the country.”

“Hindu minorities are worshipping in fear of attacks”, he said.

“The minority community is in a sense of trauma while they want to celebrate Puja, feeling risk of attack,’ he added.

The Jamaat-e-Islami leaders have recently met Bangladesh’s top Qawmi scholars, where the latter voiced support for establishing a country based on Islamic rules under the leadership of current Jamaat chief Dr Shafiqur Rahman. “From now on, we are all for each other. We will all be united like a wall made of lead,” Rahman told the gathering.

Among other incidents that a section of Bangladesh’s civil society members consider warning signs are the public rallies and poster campaign by the banned terror group, Hizb ut Tahir and the release of Mufti Jashimuddin Rahmani, chief of the Ansarullah Bangla Team, an Al-Qaeda-inspired militant outfit renamed as Ansar al Islam.

At least 25 incidents of vandalism and torching of shrines took place in a month since the interim government came to power in Bangladesh.