Bangladesh tolerance festival scrapped after Islamist threats

Bangladeshi mystic sect cancels music festival due to Islamist threats, highlighting religious tensions post-revolution.

A Bangladeshi mystic sect promoting religious tolerance has cancelled their popular music festival after Islamist threats, the latest victim of turbulent religious relations since a student-led August revolution.

The overthrow of long-time autocratic prime minister Sheikh Hasina has seen a spate of protests in Muslim-majority Bangladesh, including a surge in Islamist groups emboldened to take to the streets after years of being suppressed.

In the immediate chaotic days following Hasina's ouster, there were a string of reprisals on Hindus -- seen by some as disproportionate supporters of her regime -- as well as attacks on Muslim Sufi shrines by Islamic hardliners.

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Devotees of Lalon Shah, a 17th-century Bengali social reformer whose moving songs of religious tolerance remain hugely influential, had organised a two-day festival or "mela" in the city of Narayanganj later this month.

More than 10,000 people attended the event last year, listening to musicians promoting the sect's philosophy -- a mix of Hinduism and Sufism rather than one specific religion -- which angered some Islamic hardliners.

Narayanganj deputy commissioner Mohammad Mahmudul Hoque said city authorities had not approved the programme due to concerns about potential violence after assessing security risks.