Syed Shemul Parvez :
Mob lynching has become another panic for the people of Bangladesh.
This incident is being occurring almost everyday in the country. Being blamed as robbers and snatchers, many people have been killed in the several parts of the country in the last couple of weeks.
The menace has been intensified since the massive political changeover in August last year. Marking the issue, many have termed this as an outburst of enraged people after the interim government took over.
However, the political parties and rights activists are blaming the government for failing to control incidents like this even after six months.
At least 114 incidents of mob lynching have been reported in the seven months since the interim government took over.
At least 119 people were killed and 74 were injured in the incidents. In Jan and Feb alone, 30 mob lynching incidents occurred across the country.
The whole nation was traumatized in a brutal incident at Dhaka University when a youth named Tofazzal Hossain was mercilessly beaten to death as a suspected thief at Fazlul Haque Muslim Hall in the last September.
Two people have been beaten to death by a mob on suspicion of robbery in Chattogram’s Satkania, leaving at least five others injured.
The incident took place on Monday night in Chan Khola Churamoni village under Kanchana Union of the Upazila.
Earlier, two suspected robbers have been killed and their five associates injured in a mass beating in Shariatpur.
Earlier in previous years, mob attacks were normally occurred in Bangladesh after rumours of child abductions spread over different social media platforms including Facebook and YouTube.
At the time, the victims were targeted over rumours that human sacrifices were needed to build the Padma Bridge.
Rumours claimed children were being beheaded as offerings to the $3bn (£2.4bn) project. Vigilante groups in turn lynched people they suspected of kidnappings.
In 2019, Ms Taslima Begum, 42, was beaten to death outside a school in Dhaka by a mob who suspected her of being a child kidnapper.
A total of 792 people lost their lives in the incidents of mob beating in the last 10 years. The number of injured in these incidents is 765.
Human rights agency Human Rights Support Society (HRSS) disclosed this in a press release published on Wednesday.
The HRSS says incidents like mob lynching and torture has increased in recent times.
There have been several reports of people being killed by mobs on suspicion of being involved in robbery.
The years of 2015 and 2016 saw a high number of casualties from mob lynching. As many as 232 persons were killed in mob lynching in those two years.
The HRSS figures show the country witnessed at least 30 incidents of mob lynching in January and February. Some 19 were killed and 20 were injured in these students.
Although mob lynching is nothing new in the country, it got a new hype after the change of political regime.
Before, it happened more on the suspicion of criminal activities like theft, robbery and mugging.
Now, incidents of combined attack have increased, which have already been termed as the mob culture in the country.
HRSS says seven people were killed in mob beating in Shariatpur over robbery allegations on 28 February. Some five people were killed in the incident.
A day before that, two persons were hanged upside down in Uttara on suspicion of mugging.
Apart from this, there have been reports of mob lynching in various areas including Bogura, Madaripur, Tangail, Chattogram, Khulna, Mirsharai, Jatrabari, Tongi, Rajshahi and Barishal.
HRSS Executive Director Md Ezazul Islam cited six types of reasons behind the rise of mob lynching in the country.
