A case was filed Friday against six musical performers for harming religious sentiment of the Hindu community by presenting an Islamic song at a Chattogram city Durga Puja celebration site.
The lawsuit also brings allegations against a Hindu community leader for inviting the group to perform on Thursday night without notifying the local puja celebration management committee.
In total, seven people have been accused in the lawsuit filed with the port city’s Kotwali Police Station by Sukanta Biswas Mohajan, finance secretary of the city’s puja celebration committee.
Two of the accused were detained shortly after the incident on Thursday. Both are teachers of two Islamic religious schools.
As per the case statement, the Chattogram city puja celebration management committee invited different local cultural organisations to entertain Hindu devotes at JM Sen Hall in the city on Thursday night, as part of Durga Puja celebration programmes.
At one point, a six-member group of Chattogram Cultural Academy, which allegedly is tied to the Jamaat-e-Islami political party, performed two songs on stage, with one of the songs containing “words disturbing for the Hindu devotees.”
Even though the words seemed disturbing, the organising committee did not interrupt the singers for fear of sparking communal tensions.
However, shortly afterwards, as a video of the performance surfaced on social media, many vented anger online and sharply criticised the entire arrangement. The Hindus present on the spot started demonstrating and hundreds maintained their presence until 2am, when authorities assured them of brining the culprits to justice.
Even after two of the singers were arrested shortly afterwards, there was pent-up anger among the local Hindus over the incident, the case statement adds.
The choice of words in one of the songs did not only hurt Hindu religious sentiments, but could have also led to communal tensions across the country, Sukanta said in the statement.
He demanded exemplary punishment against the accused to prevent a repetition of Thursday's act and support the building of a tolerable atmosphere where all the communities can live side-by-side.
BDST: 2110 HRS, OCT 11, 2024
MSK
