Members of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) have arrested a ‘serial killer’, who remained fugitive in the guise of a folk singer for seven years, from Kishoreganj district. The arrestee is Md Helal Hossain alias Baul Selim, alias Selim Fakir, alias Khuni Helal, 45, of Bogura district. Read:Rape case accused arrested in Sylhet According to a media release from Rab Headquarters, a team of Rab-3 arrested him conducting a drive at Bhairab Railway Station area in Kishoreganj on Wednesday night. During interrogation, Selim Fakir, a Baul model of song ‘Bhanga Tori Chhera Pal’, said he was accused in several murder cases and was sentenced to life term jail in a murder case in Bogura. Read:60 arrested in DMP anti-drug drive He used to stay at different railway stations and shrines to escape jail sentence for the last seven years. He used to make a living by singing folk songs at different railway stations, said the release. Legal process is underway against the accused, the release added.

Police have arrested three men, including a school teacher, for allegedly assaulting a minor folk singer by shaving off his head in Shibganj upazila of Bogura district. The arrestees have been identified as Mezbaul Islam, 52, a teacher at Gujia High School, Shafiul Islam Khokon, 55, and Tarek Rahman, 20, of Juri Majhpara village in the upazila. Officer-in-charge of Shibganj Police Station Sirajul Islam said that the 16-year-old singer, a disciple of Matin Baul, had recently reacted to the trio's remarks on his attire. Read: AL politician hacked to death in Bogura Furious over the minor singer's reaction, five men went to the house of a person where he lived and allegedly tonsured his head on September 18. They had also threatened to banish him from the village if he didn't quit singing, police said. A case was subsequently filed against the five people in connection with the assault, following which the police arrested the trio on Tuesday night. "Efforts are on to nab the other accused," the OC said.

Nanci Griffith, the Grammy-winning folk singer-songwriter from Texas whose literary songs like “Love at the Five and Dime” celebrated the South, has died. She was 68. Her management company, Gold Mountain Entertainment, said Griffith died Friday but did not provide a cause of death. “It was Nanci’s wish that no further formal statement or press release happen for a week following her passing,” Gold Mountain Entertainment said in a statement. READ: Grammys overhaul process for picking nominees for top awards Griffith worked closely with other folk singers, helping the early careers of artists like Lyle Lovett and Emmylou Harris. She had a high-pitched voice, and her singing was effortlessly smooth with a twangy Texas accent as she sang about Dust Bowl farmers and empty Woolworth general stores. Griffith was also known for her recording of “From a Distance,” which would later become a well-known Bette Midler tune. The song appeared on Griffith’s first major label release, “Lone Star State of Mind” in 1987. Her 1993 album “Other Voices, Other Rooms,” earned a Grammy for best contemporary folk album. Named after a Truman Capote novel, the album features Griffith singing with Harris, John Prine, Arlo Guthrie and Guy Clark on classic folk songs. In 2008, Griffith won the Lifetime Achievement Trailblazer Award from the Americana Music Association. Country singer Suzy Bogguss, who had a Top 10 hit with Griffith’s song “Outbound Plane,” posted a remembrance to her friend on Instagram. “I feel blessed to have many memories of our times together along with most everything she ever recorded. I’m going to spend the day reveling in the articulate masterful legacy she’s left us,” Bogguss wrote. Darius Rucker called Griffith one of his idols and why he moved to Nashville. “Singing with her was my favorite things to do,” he wrote on Twitter. Keeping in line with the tradition of folk music, Griffith often wrote social commentary into her songs, such as the anti-racist ode “It’s a Hard Life Wherever You Go,” and the economic impact on rural farmers in the 1980s on “Trouble in the Fields.” READ: Grammy-winning duo Daft Punk break up after 28 years “I wrote it because my family were farmers in West Texas during the Great Depression,” Griffith told the Los Angeles Times in a 1990 interview. “It was written basically as a show of support for my generation of farmers.” Griffith gained many fans in Ireland and Northern Ireland, where she would often tour.

Momotaz Begum, leading Bangladeshi folk singer and MP, has been conferred an honorary doctorate by an Indian university. According to a post on her Facebook page on Monday night, the singer received this honorary degree from Global Human Peace University in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu for her contributions to folk music in her three-decade-long career. "Momotaz Begum has been awarded the prestigious 'Doctor of Music' by the university's founder and chairperson Dr P Manuel on April 10. The degree was presented to her, honoring her career and legacy for numerous achievements such as being the only music artist with a world record of 800 music albums, playing her role as a singer through upholding the pride of Bengali music in front of the entire world, popularising folk music in the society, achieving multiple National Awards in Bangladesh and engaging in many socio-cultural activities," the post read. Apart from enthralling Bangladeshi audiences the world over for the past 30 years, Momotaz Begum has also been actively engaged in politics since 2009. She is currently serving as a Jatiya Sangsad member representing the ruling party from the Manikganj-2 constituency.