The interim government in Bangladesh on Thursday said that the lynching of a Hindu man in the country on Wednesday was not communally motivated, The Hindu reported.
Dhaka condemned the killing of Amrit Mondal, alias Samrat, but said that a “particular segment” was trying to portray the incident as a communal attack.
The information provided by the police and the preliminary investigation into the incident showed that the killing was related to alleged “extortion and terrorist activities”, the newspaper quoted the Bangladeshi government as saying.
Mondal was beaten to death by a mob in Rajbari’s Pangsha Upazila on Wednesday, The Daily Star reported. The police said that they rescued Mondal and took him to hospital, where doctors declared him dead.
The man was accused in several criminal cases, including matters relating to murder and extortion filed in 2023, ANI quoted the government as having said.
Mondal had gone to the area on Wednesday “seeking money and died after clashes with the angry local people”, The Hindu quoted Dhaka as saying.
The Daily Star quoted residents of Pangsha as saying that Mondal had formed a criminal gang and had been involved in extortion, among other criminal activities.
The police arrested Mondal’s alleged accomplice Mohammad Selim with a foreign pistol and a pipe gun, the government said, adding that three cases have been registered in the matter.
The interim government said that it had “noted with great concern” that a “certain segment has made the unholy attempt to highlight the religious identity of the slain person and describe it as a communal attack”. It urged “all concerned sections” to behave responsibly.
The killing of Mondal came six days after another Hindu man, Dipu Chandra Das, was lynched in Bangladesh’s Mymensingh district on December 18 by a mob that accused him of blasphemy. His body was allegedly tied to a tree and set on fire.
Seven persons had been arrested in the case.
Das’ killing led to protests in several parts of India.
The killing took place amid widespread unrest in Bangladesh following the death of student leader Sharif Osman Bin Hadi, who succumbed to gunshot injuries at a hospital in Singapore on December 18.
Hadi was a prominent leader in the 2024 student protest that led to the ouster of the Sheikh Hasina government.
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