Amid a spate of attacks on the Baul community across several districts in the past week, Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus has ordered the relevant authorities to take immediate action against the perpetrators.
“The chief adviser has directed that everyone involved in the attacks on Bauls be arrested without delay,” chief adviser’s Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam told reporters at the Foreign Service Academy after a meeting of the advisory council on Thursday.
He said police were already acting on this order. “The government has taken the matter seriously.”
The directive came amid widespread criticism against the interim government’s silence about repeated attacks on Baul community and of not arresting the perpetrators, which many alleged encouraged the Tawhidi Janata to continue their assaults.
In the past week, mobs identifying themselves as Tawhidi Janata, assaulted in Manikganj, Thakurgaon, and Khulna which left several Baul artistes and protesters injured. In Manikganj, the attack took place in front of the police.
Police and district administrations did not take any measures to arrest the perpetrators.
The recent attacks began in Manikganj where four Bauls were injured followed by beating of Shamsul Haque Chisti and Mokles Pagla in Thakurgaon while they were preparing to protest the arrest of Baul leader Abul Sarkar.
In Khulna, five organisations calling themselves as Tawhidi Janata foiled a protest rally of Democratic Student Alliance against the attacks on Baul and minority communities, and the shrines. Mob attacked the rally in presence of police, leaving five protesters injured. The attackers also burned their banners.
Mob violence has been a serious problem in the country since the Yunus-led administration took over following the ouster of prime minister Sheikh Hasina in August last year.
Yunus government has been criticized particularly of not controlling the Tawhidi Janata known as unruly groups of Islamists who emerged after the fall of Hasina.
