ASK has expressed its grave concern and condemnation on the incident of cutting hairs and moustaches of the bauls in Rajbari and forcing them to conform to Islam through the rite of tawba.

According to newspaper reports, a two-day Baul festival of performing Baul songs was arranged at Char Ramnagar village of Habaspur union under Pangsha upozila of Rajbari district. On the final day of the programme an arbitration led by Muft Riaz pronounced fatwa against the bauls who joined the programme from different places. The reports also stated that in the arbitration the moustaches and hairs of the Bauls were cut and they were forcefully taken to a nearby mosque to perform the rite of tawba in order to convert them to muslims. The local administration and police confirmed the incident.

From newspaper sources, we are also informed that the local administration has failed to arrest any of the miscreants. It is not at all convincing that such arbitration with manifest agenda of pronouncing fatwa went unnoticed by the local administration. Such heinous incidents could have been avoided if the administration were careful and vigilant.

We urge the government to ensure exemplary punishment of the accused who were involved in the unlawful salish and fatwa, so that no such incident is repeated anymore.