Hindu man lynched in Bangladesh: Writer Taslima Nasreen recounts the attack

Noted writer Taslima Nasreen recounted the brutal lynching of a Hindu garment factory worker in Bangladesh over alleged blasphemy, highlighting the human tragedy amid ongoing unrest in the country.

Nasreen, originally from Bangladesh and now living in self-exile in India, claimed that the factory manager in Mymensingh forced 25-year-old Dipu Chandra Das to resign and handed him over to a waiting mob.

“Dipu Chandra Das worked at a factory in Bhaluka, Mymensingh. He was a poor labourer. It was alleged that Dipu had made derogatory remarks about the Prophet of Islam. As a result, Muslim workers inside the factory prepared to punish him. The factory’s floor manager forced him to resign from his job. Then he handed Dipu over to the frenzied followers of the Prophet who were waiting outside the factory,” Nasreen wrote on X.

She described the mob attack as “a vile jihadist spectacle,” saying Das was beaten, hanged, and his body set on fire. Nasreen also highlighted the dire situation of his family:

“Dipu Chandra Das was the sole breadwinner of his family. His income supported his disabled father, his mother, his wife, and his child. What will happen to his relatives now? Dipu’s family does not even have the money to flee to India to save themselves from the hands of jihadists. The poor have no one, especially poor minorities. They have no country, even in their own country. They have no religion, even within religion itself.”

Ten people have been arrested in connection with the lynching, interim government chief adviser Muhammad Yunus said on Saturday. The incident occurred amid heightened unrest and security concerns in the country.

The Lynching

Dipu Chandra Das, 25, was attacked on Thursday outside his workplace in Bhaluka, Mymensingh. Police said he was first beaten by a mob, hanged from a tree, and left by the side of the Dhaka–Mymensingh highway before his body was set on fire.

The attack follows widespread unrest after the death of radical student leader Sharif Osman Hadi, who succumbed to gunshot injuries in a Singapore hospital on Thursday, sparking violent protests, some with anti-India overtones.

Speaking to NDTV, Das’s father, Ravilal Das, described the horror: “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… Then they poured kerosene on him and set him on fire. His burned body was left outside.”

Ravilal also said the government had offered no assurances to the family: “No one from the government has given any assurance. No one said anything.”