On Friday evening, a 25-year-old Hindu youth was burned to death in Narsingdi, Bangladesh. The youth has been identified as Chanchal Bhowmik.
According to news agency ANI, Chanchal was sleeping in the garage when the fire broke out. CCTV footage indicated foul play, the report added.
what exactly happened
Narsingdi Superintendent of Police (SP) Abdullah Al Faruque informed ANI over phone that while the fire started inside the shop, CCTV footage showed a person of interest moving around the area.
“We have collected CCTV footage and observed that there is a scene that shows a person moving. We are investigating whether the fire was caused by some external factor or an electrical fault,” Faruque said.
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The Superintendent of Police also mentioned that the fire started inside the shop and that the firemen broke the shutter to save him, although his body was charred.
Authorities are currently investigating whether it was electrocution or an “external factor”. No arrests had been made as of Sunday.
“We are still investigating everything and no one has been arrested yet,” he added.
Unstable situation in Bangladesh
Bangladesh continues to face a volatile security environment as national elections are held on 12 February.
The activities of Sheikh Hasina’s party, the Awami League, were banned. His registration has been suspended.
Amid the banning of the Awami League and rising communal tensions, the safety of religious minorities has become a focal point of international concern.
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Reports from human rights organizations and government agencies indicate a sharp increase in targeted violence against minorities since the interim government led by Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus took power in August 2024.
As the date of the 13th national parliamentary elections in Bangladesh approaches, communal violence is increasing at an alarming rate. At least 51 incidents of violence have been reported so far in December alone, news agency ANI reported.
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“This included 10 murders, 10 cases of theft and robbery, 23 incidents involving occupation of houses, business establishments, temples and land, looting and arson, four cases of arrest and torture on false charges of religious blasphemy and being ‘RAW agents’, one attempted rape and three cases of physical assault on a Hindush Buddha Christian unit,” the statement said.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs has expressed grave concern over the killing of Hindu youth in Bangladesh, linking the issue to the broader issue of minority security and law and order in the country.
The MEA noted that independent assessments documented more than 2,900 incidents of violence against minorities during the tenure of Bangladesh’s interim government led by Muhammad Yunus, including cases of killings, arson and land grabbing.
Hasina’s message
In her first rally in India since arriving in the country following violent protests in August 2024, former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has killed a senior adviser to the interim government, Muhammad Yunus.
Former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said the country had “plunged into an age of terror” and “there is a treacherous conspiracy to trade Bangladesh’s territory and resources for foreign interests”.
She called on the people of the country to “overthrow the Yunus regime”.
“Bangladesh today stands on the edge of the abyss, a nation battered and bleeding, going through one of the most dangerous chapters in its history,” Hasina said.
She added: “The motherland won by the supreme war of liberation under the leadership of the Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, is now ravaged by a monstrous onslaught of extremist communal forces and foreign perpetrators. Our once peaceful and fertile land has turned into a wounded, blood-soaked landscape.”
“In reality, the whole country has become a vast prison, a gallows, a valley of death,” she said in a pre-recorded audio message played at an event in the state capital.
In January, a large crowd gathered in London’s Parliament Square on Wednesday for a demonstration calling for international attention against the ongoing torture, persecution and killing of minorities in Bangladesh, a statement from the Bangladesh Hindu Association and the Bengali Hindu Adarsh Sangh said.
