Bangladesh: Mob Loots And Burns Popular Musician Rahul Ananda’s House, Over 3,000 Handcrafted Musical Instruments Destroyed

The residence of Hindu musician Rahul Ananda, the frontman of the popular Bangladeshi folk band Joler Gaan, was looted and set ablaze by a marauding mob during the violence that that engulfed the country following the ouster of Sheikh Hasina's government, The Daily Star reported

The mob attacked the musician's residence, located in Dhaka's Dhanmondi 32, on Monday afternoon.

Ananda’s 140-year-old residence, which served as a vibrant cultural hub for musicians, housed over 3,000 musical instruments - most of which was handcrafted by him.

Ananda, his wife, and their son managed to escape the attack unharmed but the attackers looted whatever they could find in the artist's house. including Ananda's extensive collection of handmade musical instruments.

In Sep 2023,  French President Emmanuel Macron, who was on an official visit to Bangladesh, had paid a visit to the Dhanmondi residence of Ananda. Ananda gifted an ‘Ektara’ (a one-stringed Bengali musical instrument) to the French President. Macron also explored various musical instruments that Ananda makes and plays as an instrumentalist.

"Rahul Da and his family are shaken and take shelter to a secret place known to only a few. We could not contact him yet. It was not even his house, it was a rental he was living in for decades," The Daily Star quoted Saiful Islam Jarnal, one of Joler Gaan's founding members. as saying.

"As soon as they had broken the gate, they started ravaging the house taking whatever they could find for themselves. They took everything from furniture, mirrors to valuables. After that, they torched the whole house along with Rahul da's musical instruments," said another close family source, to The Daily Star.