Bangladesh unrest: Can’t kill music, Chhayanot's brave stand after the mob attack
Telegraph | 21 December 2025
Chhayanot, the cultural centre in Dhaka’s Dhanmondi, that was ransacked by a mob early on Friday, wants to resume its music and dance classes in two weeks after undertaking some repairs, the president of the centre told this newspaper.
Several musical instruments like tabla and harmonium were smashed and damaged by a mob that managed to barge into the cultural centre, set up in the 1960s, around 1.30am on Friday. The attack on Chhayanot took place around the same time a mob was on rampage inside the office of The Daily Star newspaper. Earlier on Thursday night, a mob had attacked the office of the newspaper Prothom Alo.
“Our main focus now is to resume the classes. I believe we will be able to start the singing and dance classes within a fortnight. We have about 4,000 students enrolled with us,” Sarwar Ali, the president of Chhayanot, told Metro on Saturday.
“The rooms need some repairs, and we will also procure new musical instruments,” Ali, a Muktiyodhha who spent some time in Agartala during Bangladesh’s Liberation War, said.
The cultural affairs advisor to the Mohammad Yunus administration, Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, visited Chhayanot on Friday. Ali said the advisor promised government help to compensate for the losses suffered. “However, we may not need it. We are a self-sustaining organisation and will manage to get over the losses on our own,” he said.
Laisa Ahmed Lisa, the general secretary of Chhayanot, expressed that they have not yet been able to gauge the extent of the damage or its financial implications. “We will need some time to figure that out,” she said.
A familiar name in Calcutta, several members of Chhayanot spent months in Bengal during Bangladesh’s Liberation War. Artistes from Bengal also sang and joined them in solidarity at several events at that time.
A video that has been widely shared on social media shows students and the general public singing Tagore’s Songkocher Bihobolota Nijere Opoman outside Chhayanot on Friday, hours after the attack.
After the protests outside Chhayanot, a mob rampaged another cultural centre, Bangladesh Udichi Shilpigoshthi, a Left-minded cultural organisation on Dhaka’s Topkhana Road. Its office was torched and nearly 2,500 rare manuscripts, books and musical instruments were gutted.
“We have a library in our office, which is located on the first floor of a building. The same floor has the office of the special branch of the police and another government department. However, the mob managed to enter the floor and set fire to our office,” said Rahman Mofiz, the assistant general secretary of Udichi, who was at the protest gathering outside Chhayanot.
Mofiz said as they were discussing their next course of action, they were informed about the attack in their office. By the time they reached Udichi headquarters around 7.30pm, the fire had gutted the office.
“This is a planned attack on all symbols of liberalism and democratic thought. When many were afraid to defy the curfew imposed by the Sheikh Hasima regime last year, the members of Udichi were on the roads singing and defying the curfew. The July Uprising has been used by the right-wing, undemocratic and fundamentalist forces to strengthen their ground, and they have been largely successful,” he said.
Udichi has around 450 centres across Bangladesh and about ten outside the country.
Both Udichi and Chhayanot have been targets of terror attacks. In March 1999, two bomb explosions killed 10 people at Udichi’s music fest in Jessore. It was next attacked on December 8, 2025, at Netrokona.
Ten people died in a series of bomb attacks in April 2001, at Poila Boishakh celebrations arranged by Chhayanot in Dhaka’s Ramna Batamul.
On Saturday, cultural organisations took out a torch rally from the Udichi headquarters. The protest rallies were ringing with songs by Rabindranath Tagore, Dwijendra Lal Roy, Kazi Nazrul Islam and Mukunda Das, among others.