‘Don’t go there’: Kolkata sarod player Shiraz Ali Khan warns Indians after harrowing Bangladesh escape

“Do not go to Bangladesh if you don’t want to face consequences,” Kolkata-based sarod player Shiraz Ali Khan has warned Indians after narrowly escaping the chaotic, violent and lawless situation in the country, which is on edge following the killing of prominent anti-India youth activist Sharif Osman Hadi.

Shiraz Ali Khan, a renowned musician and grandson of the legendary sarod maestro Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, had travelled to Dhaka on the night of December 16 for professional commitments despite local warnings. He spoke to Souvik Ghosh of India Blooms News Service (IBNS), the content partner of Connected to India, following his return to India from Bangladesh.

“I was warned against visiting Bangladesh by local people, as an anti-India sentiment is prevailing in the country,” said Khan, who has been visiting Bangladesh for over a decade, speaking to IBNS.

Khan, whose great-grandfather Baba Allauddin Khan, one of the doyens of Indian classical music, was from Brahmanbaria (now in Bangladesh), said that he sensed the hostility soon after landing, but proceeded with his first assignment along with his colleagues on December 17.

Then, on December 18, Bangladesh was on the boil as the radical youth leader Osman Hadi died in Singapore — he had been shot during campaigning — and, on the same day, in a violent expression of anti-Hindu, anti-India sentiments, a mob of Islamists brutally bludgeoned and burned alive a Hindu youth named Dipu Chandra Das in Mymensingh district.

The situation took a dramatic turn in the early hours of December 19 when a major cultural venue, Chhayanaut, in Dhaka was ransacked just hours before Khan’s scheduled performance there.

The attack on Chhayanaut  — the merciless vandalising of its musical instruments — sent shockwaves through the cultural circles in Bangladesh, as this was not just a cultural centre but also the voice of the people during the 1971 War of Liberation (Mukti Juddha) against Pakistan.

“I could sense that the police were trying to identify people from outside and harass them, attempting to extract information to determine whether they were from India. I was smart enough to speak to them in local Bangla and managed to escape the situation. I felt there was a real possibility of danger for my fellow musicians who are Hindu,” said Khan.

Khan said that even Bangladeshi cab drivers attempted to trick him and his teammates into conversations to identify their dialect after realising from phone numbers that “we were Indians”.

Handling the situation cautiously, Khan said that he was repeatedly questioned about India’s sheltering of escaped former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, but he “remained quiet” to avoid being drawn into political conversations.

“We were extremely scared and afraid,” he told IBNS, describing the harrowing experience.

Following the close shave, Khan has urged Indians to avoid travelling to Bangladesh until the country returns to a “civilised atmosphere”, which has been elusive since Hasina’s ouster in August 2024.

“Until there is a civilised atmosphere again, I don’t think any Indians should visit. My message to everyone in India is: do not go to Bangladesh if you don’t want to face the consequences. Take this as a warning,” said the musician, who is now relaxed as his colleagues have also returned safely.