'Too ugly to sing!': Internet star Hero Alom ARRESTED for performing 'off-key' classical songs
DHAKA, BANGLADESH: The Bangladeshi internet sensation Ashraful Hossen Alom, also known as "Hero Alom", was arrested for his lack of singing skills on Thursday, August 7. The police forced him the 37-year-old to sign an apology, telling him that he was “too ugly to sing” and ordering him to stop his off-key performances of classic songs, reports said.
Alom claimed he was picked up at 6 am and kept at the police headquarters for eight hours, AFP reported, describing the social media star as “an out-of-tune” singer. He was arrested and mentally tortured before being made to sign an apology bond for performing classical songs by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore and national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam. "Everyone was randomly throwing questions at me and I had to keep turning around and around," Alom told India Today. “Then someone suddenly grabbed my hair and asked if I have a face that looks like a hero,” he added.
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The police were allegedly outraged by his version of songs by the aforementioned dignitaries, according to AFP. They told the news agency they received “many complaints” about Alom’s singing and that he apologized for the songs and for wearing police uniforms in his videos. “He totally changed the traditional style of singing,” Dhaka detective Harun ur Rashid said. “He assured us that he won’t repeat this.”
One of his videos of an Arabic song, where he is dressed in traditional Arab garb on a sand dune with camels in the background, has garnered 17 million views. However, Farook Hossain, deputy police commissioner of Dhaka, rejected Alom's claims, that he had also been pressed to change his name. Shortly after his arrest, he posted a new music video for his close to 2 million Facebook followers and 1.5 million Youtube followers, showing him behind bars and about to be executed. “This is an independent Bangladesh. If I cannot speak, sing or have recreational activities, then yes I think my rights are being snatched away,” the singer told India Today.
His arrest has sparked outrage on social media, questioning the actions of the police and calling it an attack on individual rights. "I am not a fan of your songs or your acting. But if there is an attempt to muzzle your voice, I stand up against it," journalist Aditya Arafat posted.