We were saved because of changing name and hiding identity: Musician who returned from Bangladesh narrated his ordeal

Kolkata. Tabla player Mainak Biswas was able to safely return to his motherland from violence-hit Bangladesh after a 48-hour struggle, while the sarod artiste with whom he was to perform in Dhaka also managed to escape from the clutches of the anti-India mob. Famous sarod player Shiraz Ali Khan escaped from the clutches of a violent mob on Saturday and returned to Kolkata. Khan’s concert was targeted and vandalized in Dhaka’s Dhanmondi area, following which his scheduled concert was cancelled.

Khan’s mother Ayesha and the rest of his team, including Vishwas, were stuck amid the ongoing unrest in the neighboring country and could only return on Monday, though they are still haunted by worries and painful memories. “I have been to Bangladesh many times before, but I have never encountered a situation where the feeling of tension and hostility among a section of the local people could be felt so clearly,” Vishwas told a news agency.

He recalled, “Since the violence broke out on the midnight of 18-19 December, I remained confined to the hotel room most of the time and restricted my movements to the hotel lobby. But, when I was forced to step out for some urgent need, I took full care of hiding my Indian identity and changed my name to something that sounded like a Muslim name.”

Khan said that it was during the rehearsal session at the hotel that he came to know that the venue of his scheduled classical concert, on December 19, was attacked by a frenzied mob the next day. Khan left Dhaka the very next day, while Ayesha and the rest of the team had to wait anxiously till 22 December for a flight to Kolkata.

On reaching the city on Saturday night, the musician said that he had hidden his Indian identity while going to Dhaka airport and the decision was taken out of compulsion as he had never imagined that he would have to do so.