Public Lynching of Teenager in Bangladesh Brings Hundreds of Protesters to the Streets

The brutal murder of a 13-year-old boy last week, publicly beaten to death by a group of men, has sparked widespread protests in Bangladesh, with hundreds taking to the streets of the northeastern city of Sylhet on Sunday.

A video of the beating taken by a bystander has gone viral in the South Asian nation and prompted mass outrage and calls for justice, the BBC reported, citing local media. The men are shown laughing and taunting young Samiul Alam Rajon as they hit him repeatedly with a metal rod, while he begs them to stop and asks for a glass of water. They also tied him to a metal pole, and threatened to upload the video to Facebook.

An autopsy report found over 60 injury marks on Rajon’s body, and concluded that he died of a brain hemorrhage from injuries to the head.

Three of the men, including the prime suspect who had fled to Saudi Arabia, have been detained by the police, and a special squad has been formed to investigate the case.

The brutal killing appears to be a case of mob justice, with the men reportedly accusing Rajon — who worked with his family selling vegetables — of trying to steal a cycle rickshaw. The mob was spotted and chased by a few locals while trying to dump Rajon’s body in a nearby landfill, with one being caught and handed over to authorities. The other two were taken into custody in the subsequent days.

“It is a sad and unfortunate incident,” Bangladesh’s Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal told a local news outlet. “The rest will be arrested soon. None will be spared.”

[BBC]