Representative image
DHAKA: Days after 25-year-old Dipu Chandra Das was lynched on charges of blasphemy in Bangladesh’s Mymensingh, another young man from the Hindu minority community was beaten to death on charges of extortion in Rajbari’s Pangsha upazila late on Wednesday.Officials said the deceased — Amrit Mandal alias Samrat (29) — was a listed criminal, with several cases against him, including murder, and ran a gang called “Samrat Bahini” in the area. Mandal had formed a “terrorist force in his name” in the area and used to carry out “terrorist activities and extortion by intimidating the surrounding areas”, they said. Officials said he fled to India during the Awami League government’s tenure and continued “terrorist activities” in the area through the gang. He had recently returned home, the officials said.The government said police information and initial investigation indicate that the incident was not a communal attack at all. “It was an incident that arose from a violent situation arising from extortion and terrorist activities. The deceased is a top terrorist and arrived in the area to demand extortion and lost his life at one point in a clash with the angry local crowd,” it said. “He was previously accused in several serious cases, including a murder and extortion case registered in 2023. There is also an arrest warrant against him in these cases,” the govt said.Mandal, head of “Samrat Bahini”, was killed around 11 pm on Wednesday in the Hossaindanga Purantan Bazar area, Pangsha Model Police Station in-charge Sheikh Moinul Islam said. Mandal had gone to a person’s house to extort money on Wednesday. But after Mandal couldn’t find the owner of the house, he beat up his son. Some locales suspected him to be robber and lynched him, police claimed.
