Activists of Hefazat-e-Islam have wreaked havoc on the music academy of the legendary classical musician Ustad Alauddin Khan in Brahmanbaria.
During the hartal on Sunday, madrasa students vandalized and torched the "Sur Samrat Alauddin Sangeetangon" in Kumarshil where it was established to preserve the memory of the maestro.
The museum, three classrooms, Sarod Mancha, administrative offices, musical instruments, and furniture of the academy were vandalized and set ablaze by the hartal supporters.
Manzurul Alam, general secretary of the institution, said the Hefazat activists attacked the academy, carried out vandalizm and torched it, wiping out the memories of the maestro.
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He said there was a museum at the entrance of the academy which had rare memorabilia of Ustad Alauddin.
Hefazat-e-Islam activists vandalize and set fire to the music academy of Ustad Alauddin Khan in Brahmanbaria during hartal hours on Sunday, March 28, 2021 | Dhaka Tribune
In 2016, madrasa students attacked the academy and set fire to the musical instruments used by the maestro along with other materials, he said.
“Whatever we managed to collect later, have been destroyed completely and burned into ashes by the hartal supporters this time.
“There is nothing left of the memory of the music maestro,” Manzurul added.
Prabindra, security guard of the academy, said there were many souvenirs, pictures, and musical instruments in the administrative and store rooms.
“All those have been burnt, nothing is left.”
The music academy was established in 1956 in the name of Ustad Alauddin Khan who had laid the foundation of a modern Maihar gharana, a style of Indian classical music originating in the northern parts of the Indian subcontinent.
During the 2016 attack, some of the priceless exhibits like two sarods, a sitar, two violins, a santoor, a sarengi and a banjo, which were once the maestro’s favourite musical instruments, were destroyed along with 25 original letters written by him to world leaders.
Also destroyed were two exclusive Persian carpets presented to him by Maharaja of Maihar late Brijnath Singh, sitting on which he used to do his riyaaz (music practice) every morning.
Also reduced to ashes were over 1,000 rare photographs shot with various Indian and world dignitaries. The more than century-old ancestral home of Ustad Alauddin had been turned into a museum-cum-school of music, dance and art, where classical, vocal and musical instruments were taught and art and dance classes are regularly held.
