Vocalist Arman Khan, son of Ustad Rashid Khan, on Thursday cancelled his trip to Bangladesh for a classical music event that was set to take place at a club in Dhaka.
Arman, 21, expressed that his planned first solo event in Bangladesh had to be terminated as a result of the continuous violence and abuse directed at Hindus in Bangladesh.
“The situation in Bangladesh is unfit for any artist to visit or perform. I strongly condemn the torture which Hindus are being subjected to in Bangladesh,” Arman told Metro.
A couple of years prior, Arman visited Bangladesh for the first time, accompanying his father to the concert he was scheduled to perform.
Dipu Das, a Hindu, was tortured to death in Bangladesh’s Mymensingh for his religion. His body was then hanged and set on fire in public view.
The killing triggered widespread unrest in Bangladesh, causing panic among Hindus stationed in the country.
Arman added that he could not imagine a human being damaging musical instruments.
“For us, musical instruments are next to God. We worship Goddess Saraswati and her instruments. It is unimaginable that someone could damage musical instruments,” Arman said.
Chhayanot, the cultural centre in Dhaka’s Dhanmondi, was ransacked by a mob last week.
Several musical instruments, including the tabla and harmonium, were damaged by a mob that barged into the cultural centre set up in the 1960s.
The attack on Chhayanot took place around the same time a mob was on rampage at the office of The Daily Star newspaper.