2 more arrested over Hindu man’s lynching in Bangladesh; 12 held so far
Dipu Chandra Das, a 25-year-old garment factory worker, was lynched to death by a mob at Baluka in Mymensingh on Thursday
Two more persons were arrested on Sunday in connection with the lynching of a Hindu man in Bangladesh, according to a media report.
With the latest arrests, 12 people have been held for their alleged involvement in the murder, The Daily Star newspaper reported, quoting police and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) sources.
Dipu Chandra Das, a 25-year-old garment factory worker, was lynched to death by a mob and his body set on fire over alleged blasphemy at Baluka in Mymensingh on Thursday.
According to the police, Das was first beaten up by a mob outside the factory over blasphemy allegations and hanged from a tree. The crowd then left the body of the deceased on the side of the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway and later set it on fire.
The police recovered the body and sent it to the Mymensingh Medical College morgue for autopsy.
The victim’s brother, Apu Chandra Das, filed a case with the Bhaluka Police Station on Friday, accusing 140–150 unnamed people.
It was alleged that Das had written a social media post hurting religious sentiments.
However, Company Commander of RAB-14 in Mymensingh, Md Samsuzzaman, told The Daily Star on Saturday that no evidence was found indicating that the deceased had posted anything on social media that might have hurt religious sentiments.
He also said that local people or other workers of the garment factory could not point to any such activity either.
“Everyone is now saying that they did not personally hear him say anything of that sort. No one has been found who claims to have heard or seen anything themselves hurting religion,” Samsuzzaman said.
“When the situation became volatile, Das was forcibly pushed out of the factory to protect the factory,” he said.
The interim government on Friday condemned the lynching, saying there is no space for such violence in the new Bangladesh.
“The perpetrators of this heinous crime will not be spared,” it said in a statement.
The Hindu population in Bangladesh has faced a series of anti-minority incidents across the country after the ouster of the then prime minister Sheikh Hasina in August last year.
