FACT CHECK: Did Hindu man beaten to death by Bangladesh mob make anti-Islam remarks?

Dipu Chandra Das, a 27-year-old Hindu man, was the recent victim of a shocking mob lynching at the Bhaluka area of Bangladesh’s Mymensingh over his alleged comments against Islam.

The deceased, who worked at a local garment factory, had been beaten to death by a crowd on Thursday night over allegedly making questionable remarks against Prophet Muhammad. He was then tied to a tree and burnt.

However, Bangladesh’s Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has now said that there was no evidence to prove Das had actually said anything provocative against Islam—neither on social media, nor in public.

“Even after talking to local people and workers, nothing like that was found,” Mohammad Shamsuzzaman, commander of the Mymensingh RAB-14 Company, told The Daily Star.

Shamsuzzaman also pointed out that most of the eyewitnesses and locals that the RAB had questioned did not even know what Das’s provocative remarks were, or if he had even said them—they claimed they had heard about it from others.

Videos of the incident went viral on social media after many in the crowd were seen filming the grotesque murder on their mobile phones. Reports say many people were also seen celebrating the kill.

“No one from the government has given any assurance. No one said anything,” said Ravilal Das, the victim’s father, to NDTV when he first got the news of his son’s death, despite the Muhammad Yunus-led interim government condemning the brutal lynching death and ordering legal action.

“We can’t say for sure whether they were from Chhatra Shibir or not. Nobody can be certain; it’s what people are saying,” he added.

On Saturday, Yunus declared in an X post that law enforcement agencies had arrested ten people in connection with the murder of Dipu Chandra Das, whom he describes as “a young man of traditional religion”.

Out of the ten people, seven were arrested by the RAB, while three were arrested by the Bangladesh police.

In the meantime, the Yunus-led government is also facing a 24-hour ultimatum from the Inquilab Mancha since Saturday to take major steps in the investigation into the death of its leader, Sharif Osman Hadi, in Singapore.

The youth leader was laid to rest beside Dhaka’s national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam at the South Plaza of the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban on Saturday, at his family’s request, the radical party said.