The New Nation - Internet Edition

Hasanuzzaman Khan

The destruction of the statue built in memory of Lalan Shah, the 17th century mystic poet and the great Baul, has generated fresh row following conflicting statements of Mahbub Jamil, special Assistant in charge of Civil Aviation and the sculptor Mrinal Haque, the architect of the statue. They both opposed each other's statement.

Special Assistant to the Chief Adviser in charge of Civil Aviation who is an ex-officio adviser, has said the statue built in front of Zia International Aiport (ZIA) symbolising mystic poet Fakir Lalan Shah was demolished, as it was not built as per specimen approved by the authority.

Mahbub Jamil said, an Islamic organisation demanded the removal of the statue built near Ashkona haj camp on the plea that erection of statue is against the spirit of Islam. The Islamic organisation bases argument on the tenet of the religion that Idolising any spirit of person is opposed to the intrinsic values of Islam. The special assistant, of course, said the authority has removed the statue on entirely a different consideration. And that consideration is that the sculpture has not been built as per specimen approved by the authority.

Mahbub Jamil said, they contemplated to build a fountain in front of the ZIA instead of the statue of Lalon Shah, the 17th century great saint. The special assistant, however, said that they wanted to project the Baul Culture and folk mystic literary heritage, which has been recognised as the world heritage by the UN like that of the Sundarbans as mangrove forest.

Sculptor Mrinal Haq who was the architect of the Lalan statue in front of ZIA said, he had submitted 30 specimens to the Civil Aviation Ministry and they selected the statue in question out of the submitted specimens. So the version given by the civil Aviation Ministry was not compatible with facts. It was another 'Bamyan' type destruction, he said.

Earlier Mufti Noor Hossain Noorani, the Ameer of a religious movement, in a statement has demanded construction of a haj minar in the place where a statue incompatible with the Islamic values was built. The Mufti was stern in his assertion and gave October 24 deadline to accomplish the task, that is, his proposed haj minar.

He demanded the resignation of Mahbub Jamil from the ministry of the Civil Aviation. He said, they had sent a representation to the Army Chief protesting the construction of anti-Islamic statue in the Airport where people coming from outside will develop a bad notion about Bangladesh.

Islamic movement announced a series of programmes protesting the construction of the statue. Maulana Hemayetuddin of Islami Shashantantra Andolan, Maulana Abdur Rab Yousubi of Islamic Oikkya Jote and Maulana Abdul Jabbar of Khelafat Majlish were present at the press conference. Maulana Noorani said, extra-constitutional intervention was needed to destroy the statue.

Islami Ain Bastabayan Committee yesterday threatened to demolish all statues, works of sculpture - irrespective of whether these depict an eminent personality or any aspect of liberation war, saying that these are against Islamic values.

Mufti Fazlul Haque Amini, convener of the committee, demanded of the government to remove all such statues and said-otherwise, they would take the matter in their own hands.

He made the demand apparently inspired by the recent removal of five statues depicting five bauls (folk singers) by two government agencies giving in to protests by another Islami group.

"It's seriously hurting the religious sentiments of Muslims," Amini said at a news conference at Dhaka Reporters' Unity (DRU) in the city.

He accused the caretaker government of trying to turn the Muslim-majority Bangladesh into a nation of idol worshippers.

On September 15, the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) and the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) removed the statues of five Bauls, including Lalon Shah, from the roundabout in front of Zia International Airport.

The action has earned strong criticism from various cultural organisations and personalities.

At the press conference on Friday, Amini also accused the Awami League of trying to make the city of mosques, Dhaka, into a city of statues by setting up many sculptures at different city points during its previous rule.

"The caretaker government is also engaged to make Bangladesh into a 'Pouttolik desh' (country of idol worshippers) like the Awami League. People didn't accept it then and won't accept it now," he said.

Replying to a query, Amini said they would also pull down all the statues that were set up during the BNP's tenure.

He threatened to build a tough movement if the government failed to accede to their demands. "Even the state of emergency will not be able to stop us," he said.