According to Mahapatro’s family, he was beaten and poisoned by a local. Mahapatro later died in a hospital.
New Delhi: Members of the Hindu community in Bangladesh continue to be targeted. A Hindu man, identified as Joy Mahapatro, was killed on Thursday in the Sunamganj district. According to Mahapatro’s family, he was beaten and poisoned by a local. Mahapatro later died in the intensive care unit (ICU) of the Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College Hospital.
Further details about the case are awaited.
This incident came just days after a 25-year-old Hindu man died after jumping into a canal to escape a mob chasing him on the suspicion of theft. The body of the victim, identified as Mithun Sarkar from Bhandarpur village, was recovered by the police on Tuesday afternoon.
Recently, there has been a sharp rise in violence targeting religious minorities in the neighbouring country as it prepares for its first parliamentary elections since the 2024 uprising that toppled the Sheikh Hasina government.
Human rights observers suggest that the recent killings are not isolated tragedies but signals of a systemic breakdown in the state’s ability to protect its most vulnerable citizens.
On Thursday, the Bangladesh police arrested the prime suspect behind the lynching of Hindu man Dipu Chandra Das, a garment worker killed over allegations of blasphemy.
Officials identified the accused as Yasin Arafat, a former teacher believed to have played a central role in both orchestrating and carrying out the attack.
Dipu, 27, was killed on December 18 in the Mymensingh district. He was allegedly forced to resign by his factory supervisors before being dragged from his workplace and handed over to an enraged local mob.
The crowd beat him to death, hanged his body from a tree, and set it on fire.
Investigators revealed that several of his colleagues had participated in the assault.
