Hindu businessman dies three days after attack in Bangladesh

A Hindu businessman, who was brutally attacked, hacked and set on fire three days ago, died on Saturday in Bangladesh, reports and a minority faith group leader said. This is the fifth death of a person from the Hindu community since December, and radical groups in Bangladesh are visibly trying to intimidate the minority faiths, Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council spokesman Kajol Debnath said. Khokon Chandra Das, 50, was assaulted near Keurbhanga Bazar in Damudya in Shariatpur district, about 100 kilometres south of Dhaka, on Wednesday night while returning home after closing his shop.

“Das died this morning after battling for life for three days,” Debnath confirmed. Das, who ran a medicine shop and mobile banking business, was travelling in an autorickshaw when the attackers intercepted the vehicle and allegedly beat him up, hacked him with sharp weapons and then poured petrol on his head before setting him on fire, media reports had said on Thursday.

In a bid to save himself, Das jumped into a roadside pond as locals raised an alarm. The attackers fled the scene, police said, adding that he was rescued by locals, taken to Shariatpur Sadar Hospital, and then referred to Dhaka due to the severity of his injuries. Doctors in Dhaka said Das suffered multiple injuries across his body, including a serious wound to his abdomen, along with burn injuries on his face, head and hands.

“This is the fifth death of a Hindu man in one month (December). During the month, we recorded seven attacks on the community,” Debnath said, fearing right-wing radical groups in Bangladesh were trying to intimidate the minority faiths. “The use of petrol or gunpowder to torch someone or someone’s household is an ominous sign, not just criminal acts. Perhaps we are witnessing the rise of a radical (right-wing) culture,” Debnath said.

On December 18, 25-year-old Dipu Chandra Das was lynched by a mob and his body set on fire over alleged blasphemy in Mymensingh city. A week later, on December 23, unidentified men set on fire a Qatar expatriate workers Shukh Shil and Anil Shil’s home in the Raojan area on the outskirts of Chattogram, but the residents managed to come out of the building unharmed.

On December 24, another Hindu man, Amrit Mondal, was lynched over alleged extortion in Rajbari town’s Pangsha upazila. Debnath, however, did not elaborate on the other two deaths. According to the 2022 census, the Hindu population in Bangladesh is approximately 13.13 million, which accounts for about 7.95 per cent of the country’s total population.

There has been a spate of violence targeting the minority community in the country in the last few weeks, and mob violence or clandestine attacks have emerged as a major crisis in Bangladesh’s changed political landscape, political observers said.

Several hundred Sufi shrines of liberal Muslim saints who preached Islam in the region were attacked and damaged as well in the past year, and in one such recent incident, the fanatic elements dug up the body of a spiritual man and set it on fire, damaging his shrine.