A 25-year-old Hindu man, Dipu Chandra Das, was lynched by a mob in Mymensingh city in Bangladesh on Thursday night following allegations of blasphemy, an incident that has triggered widespread outrage.
Das, a factory worker, lived in Mymensingh and was employed at the Pioneer Knit Composite Factory in the Square Masterbari area. According to local and eyewitness accounts cited by Bengali news outlet Barta Bazar, rumours alleging blasphemy spread rapidly within the factory and nearby areas, creating tension that quickly escalated.
An angry mob later attacked Das, beating him brutally. He is believed to have died on the spot due to the severity of the assault. Inspector (Investigation) Abdul Malek of Bhaluka Model Police Station said that after the killing, the attackers left Das’s body by the side of the Dhaka–Mymensingh highway and set it on fire, bringing traffic on both sides of the road to a standstill.
Speaking to NDTV, Das’s father Ravilal Das described how the family learned about the incident through social media. “We saw it on Facebook. From Facebook we started hearing things, then more people were saying it,” he said. “Then someone told me, my brother… my brother, he was beaten, beaten badly.”
He said a relative later informed the family about the brutality of the attack. “My uncle came after half an hour and told me they took my son and tied him to a tree,” Ravilal Das told NDTV.
Bangladesh’s interim government condemned the lynching in a statement issued on Friday. “There is no space for such violence in the new Bangladesh. The perpetrators of this heinous crime will not be spared,” the statement said.
However, Ravilal Das told NDTV that the family has yet to receive any direct assurance from authorities. “No one from the government has given any kind of assurance. No one said anything,” he said.
The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has arrested seven people in connection with the killing. In a statement posted on social media platform X, the Bangladesh government said the arrests followed a series of operations carried out by RAB-14 across different locations.
The accused have been identified as Md Limon Sarkar (19), Md Tarek Hossain (19), Md Manik Mia (20), Ershad Ali, Nijum Uddin, Alomgir Hossain (38), and Md Miraj Hossain Akon (46).
