Zakir Hossain from Dhaka
Investigators have found no evidence that Dipu Chandra Das, a Hindu garment worker lynched in Bangladesh’s Mymensingh over alleged blasphemy, made any remark hurting religious sentiments, officials said. Das, 25, was beaten to death by a mob outside a factory in Bhaluka, his body later hung from a tree and set on fire.
“No one has been found who claims to have heard or seen anything themselves hurting religion,” Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) officer Md Samsuzzaman told journalists, adding that there was no incriminating Facebook post either. According to factory officials, a rumour spread among workers that Das had made derogatory remarks about Islam.
“The labourers demanded that Das must be sacked… We tried to save him, but the situation was volatile,” floor-in-charge Alamgir Hossain told journalists. The mob later dragged Das out, beat him to death and set his body on fire on the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway median. Ten people have been arrested.
The Muhammad Yunus-led interim government condemned the lynching, saying, “There is no space for such violence in new Bangladesh. The perpetrators of this heinous crime will not be spared.”