India on Friday condemned the lynching of a Hindu man in Bangladesh, saying that the “unremitting hostility” against minorities in the country was concerning.
Dipu Chandra Das, a factory worker, was beaten to death by a mob in Bangladesh’s Mymensingh district on December 18, after which his body was allegedly tied to a tree and set on fire. Eighteen persons have been taken into custody for the lynching.
On Friday, Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said that continuing hostilities against minorities in Bangladesh, including Hindus, Christians and Buddhists, at the hands of extremists was a matter of great concern.
“We condemn the recent gruesome killing of a Hindu youth in Mymensingh and expect the perpetrators of the crime to be brought to justice,” Jaiswal said.
The spokesperson also claimed that independent sources had documented more than 2,900 incidents of violence against minorities in Bangladesh during the tenure of the interim government headed by Muhammad Yunus.
Such incidents cannot be brushed aside as media exaggeration or dismissed as political violence, he added.
Das was killed 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 earlier that day.
Hadi was a prominent leader in the 2024 student protest that led to the ouster of the earlier government headed by Awami League leader Sheikh Hasina.
On Friday, Jaiswal also reacted cautiously to the return of Tarique Rahman, the acting chairperson of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and son of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, to Bangladesh on Thursday after 17 years in exile, reported PTI.
He said that Rahman’s return should be seen in the context of ensuring inclusive polls in the country.
Rahman, who is a key contender to be the next prime minister of the country after the general elections in February, had been living in London since he fled Bangladesh in 2008.
He was sentenced to life in prison for allegedly masterminding a grenade attack on a rally in 2004 that killed 24 leaders and activists of Hasina’s Awami League.
While in exile, he was also convicted on charges of money laundering and faced around 100 lawsuits. The convictions were overturned after Hasina was ousted from power in August 2024, following large-scale student-led protests against her government.
Rahman’s return to Bangladesh ahead of the 13th national election, to be held on February 12, is being seen as a defining moment for the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. This will be the first election in the country since the ouster of Hasina.
Yunus, a Nobel laureate economist, had taken over as chief adviser of Bangladesh’s interim government three days after Hasina resigned as the prime minister and fled to India on August 5, 2024.
Hasina was ousted from power after being the prime minister of Bangladesh for 16 years.
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