Protesters took to the streets across Bangladesh on Tuesday to demand the death penalty for the killers of a 13-year-old boy as anger mounted over the sickening lynching which was captured on video and then went viral.Bangladeshi police have now arrested five people over the July 8 killing of Samiul Alam Rajon, who was tied to a pole and then subjected to a brutal assault in which he pleaded for his life.
One of those arrested was detained in Saudi Arabia after outraged members of the large Bangladeshi expat community there shopped him to police.
The 28-minute video of Samiul, which was widely circulated after being posted on social media, has prompted deep soul-searching among Bangladeshis as well as a series of mass protests.
Hundreds of people demonstrated at the scene of the murder in Samiul’s home city of Sylhet on Tuesday morning demanding that the killers be sent to the gallows.“Protesters held hands at the site of the murder. They were demanding execution for the killers,” local police chief Akhter Hussain said.
A new mass demonstration has been called for Tuesday afternoon in the centre of the city in the country’s northeast.
Protests were also held in the capital Dhaka where hundreds shouted “Hang them, hang them” as they massed outside the national press club, a photographer at the scene said.Although executions are rare in Bangladesh, several Islamist leaders have been hanged in recent months over their role in the 1971 independence war.
Thousands of demonstrators held similar protests on Monday, venting their anger at police for not doing enough to hunt down the killers. Samiul was accused by his attackers of stealing a bicycle although his family insist that the youngster was innocent.