‘Lalmonirhat mob killing failure of local administration’

Rangpur Divisional Commissioner Abdul Wahab Bhuiyan has said there was a failure of local administration behind the incident of beating a man to death and burning the body by a mob on allegations of hurting religious sentiment in Lalmonirhat recently.

Abdul Wahab came up with the statement while visiting the spot on Saturday. He attended a meeting with all the imams of the upazila during his visit. Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) of Rangpur Range Devdas Bhattacharya was also present at the meeting, reports UNB.

“When such a trivial matter turns into such a destructive incident, it is the failure of the local administration,” the deputy commissioner said.

The DIG informed that three cases were filed over the incident and seven people have so far been arrested.

“Victim’s brother and Sub-inspector of Patram Police Station also filed two separate cases, all cases are under process,” he added.

On Thursday, a mob beat the victim Shahidunnabi Jewel to death and burned his body near the Burimari Bazar Central Mosque in Patgram upazila (sub-district).

Shahidunnabi, son of Abdul Wazed Mia of Shalban Mistripara in Rangpur district town, was a former librarian of Rangpur Cantonment Public School and College.

Police said Jewel came to Burimari in the afternoon with Sultan Zubair Abdar. After offering Asr prayer at the central mosque, he went to get a Quran from a shelf.

As he tried to pick one out, a number of Qurans and Hadith books fell at his feet, leading to an argument between him and the muezzin of the mosque.

Later, locals took Jewel to the local union parishad office adjacent to the mosque as the argument escalated.

At one stage, the mob broke into the office. They broke open the door and beat Jewel to death on the spot.

They dragged the body to the Patgram-Burimari highway and set it on fire. The people also demonstrated in the area.

On information, police, Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and firefighters rushed to the spot but failed to take control of the situation.

Police also fired 17 blank shots to disperse the mob. Ten policemen, including the OC, were injured as the mob kept hurling brick chips.

Police rescued Sultan, the victim's friend, and sent him to a local hospital for treatment.