Bangladesh minority violence: Trader dies of burns, second killing in a week

Dhaka, Jan 3: As violence against minorities escalates in Bangladesh, another Hindu man died on Saturday after being brutally attacked by a mob in Damudya upazila of Shariatpur district.

The victim, Khokon Chandra Das, a businessman from Damudya, was hacked and critically injured before the assailants poured petrol on him and set him on fire earlier this week.

The incident occurred near Keurbhanga Bazar in Kaneshwar Union of Damudya, late on December 31. He succumbed to his injuries while undergoing treatment at the National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery in Dhaka on Saturday morning.

"We have received information that Khokon Chandra Das, a businessman from Keurbhanga Bazar, has died while undergoing treatment in Dhaka. We are in touch with Shahbagh Police Station in Dhaka. The body will be handed over to the family members after the autopsy. And the police are trying to arrest the accused in the case filed in that incident," Bangladesh's Bengali newspaper Kalbela quoted Damudya Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Mohammad Rabiul Haque as saying.

Citing sources at Damudya police station, the leading Bengali daily in Bangladesh, 'Prothom Alo', reported that Khokon runs a medicine and mobile banking business in Keurbhanga Bazar.

He was returning home in a CNG-powered auto rickshaw after closing his shop on Wednesday night with the day's earnings when miscreants stopped the vehicle near Keurbhanga Bazar on the Damudya-Shariatpur road, hacked and injured him and then poured petrol on his head and set him on fire.

According to his nephew, Prant Das, Khokon had been undergoing treatment at the National Burn and Plastic Surgery Institute in Dhaka since late Thursday night.

His condition deteriorated in the early hours of Saturday, and he died while receiving treatment in the Intensive Care Unit.

Speaking to Prothom Alo, Bidhan Sarkar, the department head of the burn unit at Dhaka Medical College Hospital, said that Khokon was initially treated at Dhaka Medical College with burns covering about 30 per cent of his body.

Khokon's death marked the second such act of brutality against the minorities in the span of a week. Earlier this week, 40-year-old Bajendra Biswas was shot dead by a colleague in Bhaluka upazila of Mymensingh district.

On December 24, last year, Bangladeshi press reported the killing of another youth, identified as 29-year-old Amrit Mondal, who was allegedly lynched by a mob in the Hossaindanga area of Kalimohar Union in Bangladesh.

Earlier on December 18, 25-year-old Dipu Chandra Das, was brutally killed in a mob lynching incident over false blasphemy accusations by a Muslim coworker at his factory in Bhaluka Upazila of Mymensingh. The mob killed Das and then hung his body from a tree before setting it on fire.

IANS