‘Poured kerosene, set him on fire, tied burnt head and torso…’: Father of Hindu man lynched in Bangladesh reveals chilling details; 10 arrested

Ten people have been arrested in connection with the lynching of a Hindu man in Bangladesh, Chief Adviser of the interim government Muhammad Yunus announced Saturday. Dipu Chandra Das, a 25-year-old garment factory worker, was lynched to death by a mob and his body set on fire over alleged blasphemy in Baluka in Mymensingh on Thursday, as reported by news agency PTI. Of the 10, seven were arrested by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) while three were arrested by the police as suspects in the case, Yunus said in a statement on X.

Following the death of Inqilab Mancha spokesperson Sharif Osman Hadi on Thursday, violence erupted and the situation spiraled out of control. In the course of this protest, Dipu Chandra Das, a young Hindu man, was killed by a group of people by being set on fire in public. They beat him, stripped him of his clothes, tied him to a tree at an intersection, and set him on fire. The entire story was recounted in detail by Dipu Chandra Das’s father to NDTV. He noted that when the crowd had finished pouring kerosene on his son’s body and setting him on fire, the mob tied the charred head and torso outside, leaving them exposed.

What exactly did the victim’s father reveal about the mob lynching in Bangladesh?

In a conversation with NDTV, Ravilal Das, father of Das, expressed disappointment at not receiving any assurance from the government of any kind. “No one from the government has given any assurance. No one said anything,” he stated, as reported by NDTV. Facebook was the source of the first information he received regarding his son’s death.

Which chilling details did the father share about his son being set on fire?

“We started hearing things from Facebook, and then more people were talking about it. We found out about it when someone told me he was beaten badly. Half an hour later, my uncle came and told me they took my son and they tied him to a tree,” Ravilal Das, Dipu Chandra Das’s father stated.

The youth’s father further said,”Then they poured kerosene on him and set him on fire. His burned body was left outside. They tied the burnt torso and head outside. It was horrible.” He said it was still not possible to clearly identify who orchestrated the mob lynching, including whether members of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh or Chhatra Shibir were involved. “We can’t say for sure whether they were from Chhatra Shibir or not. Nobody can be certain; it’s what people are saying,” he stated, as per NDTV report.

What action has the Bangladesh administration taken so far in the case?

According to the police, Das was first beaten up by a mob outside the factory over blasphemy allegations and hanged from a tree. According to the PTI report, the crowd then left the body of the deceased on the side of the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway and later set it on fire. The police recovered the body and sent it to the Mymensingh Medical College morgue for autopsy.

The interim government on Friday condemned the lynching, saying there is no space for such violence in the new Bangladesh. “The perpetrators of this heinous crime will not be spared,” the interim government said in a statement. The Hindu population in Bangladesh has faced a series of anti-minority incidents across the country after the ouster of the then prime minister Sheikh Hasina in August last year.