New Delhi: A Hindu man was assaulted by a mob in Bangladesh’s Rajbari district Wednesday night, allegedly over claims of extortion, and died soon after, according to reports in Bangladeshi media.
Though it is unclear at this time whether Amrit Mondal’s killing was on account of his Hindu identity, the incident comes a week after another Hindu man, Dipu Chandra Das, was lynched by a mob and set on fire over allegations of blasphemy in Mymensingh’s Bhaluka upazila in the violence that followed the killing of Osman Hadi.
Hadi was a prominent face of the student-led protest movement that forced the ouster of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
On Amrit Mondal’s killing, The Daily Star quoted Assistant Superintendent of Police (Pangsha Circle) Debrata Sarkar as having told reporters that the incident took place around 11 pm Wednesday at Hosendanga village.
ASP Sarkar added that police have arrested one of Mondal’s alleged associates, Mohammed Selim, and recovered two firearms from his possession including a pistol. Amrit Mondal, or Samrat as he was locally known, was facing at least two cases, including a murder charge.
The Daily Star quoted local residents who claimed Mondal was part of a local gang, was in hiding in India after Hasina’s ouster in 2024, and recently returned to the village. Local residents also claimed Mondal and his associates had gone to collect extortion money from one Shahidul Islam Thursday night when someone raised an alarm.
A group of the villagers then rushed to the scene and assaulted Mondal, who was taken to the hospital in critical condition by the police and later declared dead.
On Thursday night, the interim government in Bangladesh issued a statement, saying: “According to police reports and preliminary investigations, it is evident that the incident was not a communal attack.”
“It was an act of violence arising from extortion and terrorist activities. The deceased, a top-tier criminal identified as Amrit Mandal (alias Samrat), arrived in the area with the intent to demand extortion money. He lost his life during a clash with an aggrieved local mob. He was a named accused in several serious cases, including murder and extortion cases filed in 2023, and had active arrest warrants against him,” the statement added.
In its statement, the interim government said, “Legal action will be taken against everyone involved, directly or indirectly, in this incident.”
The incident comes close on the heels of violence across Dhaka and other parts of Bangladesh following the death of Osman Hadi, a prominent face of the anti-Hasina protest movement who was planning to contest the upcoming general election as an Independent.
Those protesting his death alleged that his attackers fled to India after the shooting, though authorities have not produced any evidence so far to back the claim. In the violence that followed his death, the offices of two major media houses, The Daily Star and Prothom Alo, were set on fire, while Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s residence at Dhanmondi 32 was attacked again.
Protest marches were also reported near Indian diplomatic missions in Rajshahi and Chattogram. Further, a Hindu man living in Banglades, Dipu Chandra Das, was lynched by a mob and set on fire over allegations of blasphemy. Das’s killing prompted condemnation and protests in India.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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