Forty-six Muslim clerics in Assam have issued a fatwa against up-and-coming singer Nahid Afrin, who was the first runner-up in the 2015 season of a musical reality TV show, asking her to stop performing in public.

Police said they were investigating whether the fatwa was a reaction to Nahid recently performing songs against terrorism, including the Islamic State terror group. “We are looking at this angle as well,” ADG (special branch) Pallab Bhattacharya said.

Leaflets bearing the fatwa in Assamese and the names of the clerics were distributed across Hojai and Nagaon districts in central Assam on Tuesday. According to the fatwa, a March 25 programme at Udali Sonai Bibi College in Lanka, Assam, where Nahid, 16, is scheduled to perform is “against the Sharia”.

“If anti-Sharia acts like musical nights are held on grounds surrounded by masjids, idgahs, madrassas and graveyards, our future generations will attract the wrath of Allah,” it said.

The young singer, a Class X student who lives in Biswanath Chariali, broke down on hearing news of the fatwa. “I am speechless. I think my music is God’s gift to me. I will never bow down to it (such warnings) and never leave singing,” she said.