Petition to Home Adviser demanding release of Baul Abul Sarkar

The Sadhu-Guru devotees and the Oli-Aulia Ashekan Parishad held a human chain and submitted a memorandum to the Home Affairs Adviser demanding the release of Baul and Palakar Abul Sarkar and a fair trial for the attack on his followers in Manikganj.

On Monday, after the human chain in front of the National Press Club, a representative team of the parishad submitted the memorandum.

The memorandum stated that nearly two weeks ago, a false case was filed against Baul and Palakal Maharaj Abul Sarkar in a deliberately targeted manner during a Palagan performance. When his followers attempted to hold a human chain in protest of this incident, they were brutally attacked by miscreants. We strongly condemn this attack and demand the immediate unconditional release of Maharaj Abul Sarkar.

It added that Palagan is a hundred-year-old folk tradition of Bengal, where religious, moral, and humanistic teachings are spread through debate, argumentation, and symbolic character enactment. Acting in opposing roles within the Pal structure is a customary aesthetic tradition that has been educational and enjoyable for ordinary people since ancient times. However, some uneducated and ill-intentioned quarters have selectively highlighted a part of Abul Sarkar’s Pal performance and accused him of blasphemy, which is inconsistent with reality. He is an artist of the Sufi tradition, in which there is no place for atheism; rather, praise of Allah and the Prophet, and tales of love, are the central themes. Therefore, the allegations against him are clearly baseless and malicious.

The memorandum further stated that there is concern that a group may use this incident as fuel to create anarchy and communal tension in society. In this context, our demands are: the immediate unconditional release of Baul and Palakal Maharaj Abul Sarkar; swift identification and legal action against those who attacked his followers in Manikganj; effective and visible measures by the state to prevent social disorder; expression of deep concern and anger over nearly a hundred attacks on devotees and vandalism of shrines across the country in the post-uprising period; and a firm and responsible role by the government to prevent such incidents in the future.

During the human chain, speeches were delivered by researcher and thinker Farhad Mojhar, Baul Mohammad Romel, Abul Kashem, Aleya Begum, and others.