Seven people have been arrested in connection with the lynching of a Hindu youth in Bangladesh’s Mymensingh district, chief adviser Muhammad Yunus said on Saturday.
The Yunus administration identified the victim as Dipu Chandra Das, a 27-year-old Sanatan Hindu. In a post on X, Yunus said, “The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has arrested seven individuals as suspects in the beating murder of Dipu Chandra Das (27), a Sanatan Hindu youth, in Baluka, Mymensingh.”
According to the statement, those arrested are Md. Limon Sarkar (19), Md. Tarek Hossain (19), Md. Manik Mia (20), Ershad Ali (39), Nijum Uddin (20), Alomgir Hossain (38) and Md. Miraj Hossain Akon (46).
Yunus said the arrests followed coordinated action by RAB units in the area. “RAB-14 conducted operations at various locations and arrested the aforementioned suspects,” he said.
Mymensingh lynching
The lynching occurred amid the widespread unrest that followed the death of youth leader Sharif Osman Hadi, a prominent figure of last year’s student-led July Uprising and spokesperson of the Inqilab Mancha. Hadi died on Thursday at a hospital in Singapore, where he was undergoing treatment after being shot in the head by masked gunmen in Dhaka on December 12.
{{/usCountry}}The lynching occurred amid the widespread unrest that followed the death of youth leader Sharif Osman Hadi, a prominent figure of last year’s student-led July Uprising and spokesperson of the Inqilab Mancha. Hadi died on Thursday at a hospital in Singapore, where he was undergoing treatment after being shot in the head by masked gunmen in Dhaka on December 12.
{{/usCountry}}Earlier on Friday, the Bangladesh’s interim government had strongly condemned the alleged lynching of a Hindu man in Mymensingh and renewed its appeal for restraint.
In a statement issued by the Yunus administration, the government said, “We express deep condemnation over the incident in Mymensingh in which a Hindu man was beaten to death. There is no place for such violence in the new Bangladesh. No one involved in this brutal crime will be spared.”
Calling Hadi a martyr, the government urged people to reject violence, provocation and hatred. It also expressed solidarity with journalists of leading national dailies – The Daily Star, Prothom Alo – whose offices were vandalised and set on fire by an angry mob, though staff narrowly escaped harm.