Seven persons were arrested in connection with the lynching of a Hindu man in Bangladesh’s Mymensingh district after being accused of blasphemy, the country’s interim government said on Saturday.
The 27-year-old man was beaten to death by a mob on Thursday night, after which his body was allegedly tied to a tree and set on fire, BBC Bangla quoted the duty officer at the Bhaluka police station as saying.
The man has been identified as Dipu Chandra Das, a factory worker who lived in the area.
The suspects arrested in the matter were 19-year-olds Muhammad Limon Sarkar and Muhammad Tarek Hossain, 20-year-olds Muhammad Manik Mia and Nijum Uddin, 38-year-old Alomgir Hossain, 39-year-old Ershad Ali and 46-year-old Muhammad Miraj Hossain Akon.
They were arrested in operations conducted by the Rapid Action Battalion.
On Friday, the police recovered Das’ body and sent it to the Mymensingh Medical College Hospital for a post-mortem examination.
The police said that steps had been taken to restore law and order in the area.
Muhammad Yunus, the head of Bangladesh’s interim government, said that he “deeply condemns” the lynching.
“There is no space for such violence in new Bangladesh,” the statement added. “The perpetrators of this heinous crime will not be spared.”
The killing occurred amid widespread unrest in the country following the death of student leader Sharif Osman Bin Hadi, who succumbed to gunshot injuries at a hospital in Singapore on Thursday.
Hadi was a prominent leader in the 2024 student protest that led to the ouster of the Sheikh Hasina government.
Protests erupted in Dhaka and other cities, during which offices of newspapers and properties linked to Hasina’s Awami League were attacked.
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