Bilal Ali, a Hafiz, had earlier officiated as the Imam of a mosque at Borjhar in Panbari locality of Darrang district of Assam
A Muslim cleric from Darrang district of Assam has been arrested for reportedly supporting the brutal killing of a Hindu man in Bangladesh.
The person has been identified as Bilal Ali, who is a ‘Hafiz’, and was held for supporting the lynching of the Hindu youth named Dipu Chandra Das on social media.
The youth was killed by a murderous mob in Bangladesh’s Mymensingh district last Thursday night.
Ali had earlier officiated as the Imam of a mosque at Borjhar, Panbari.
He is the second person to have been arrested in Assam for supporting the brutal lynching of Das in Bangladesh.
Rangia Police had earlier taken a person named Mohd. Sheif Akhtar Ali, a resident of Ward No. 3 of Rangia town, into custody for posting a video in support of the killing of Dipu Chandra Das.
Ali had posted a video on Facebook and Instagram accounts named Bollo Chaiwala which showed Das being killed by the mob who also tied the body to a tree and set it on fire. The arrested youth was also seen in the video scrolling his mobile phone while his facial expressions suggested he was enjoying and supporting the utterly despicable act.
After the video was brought to the notice of police, a team of cops from Rangia Police Station took him into custody.
The brutal lynchng of Dipu Chandra Das — who worked at a garment factory and lived in the Dubalia Para locality of Bhaluka Upazila as a tenant and was stripped naked, hanged, and later tied to a pole, after which his body was set on fire by the mob — has led to anger and condemnation across the world.
The killing also highlights how Hindus, who are a minority community in Bangladesh, have been facing severe persecution in the neighbouring country.
The interim government of Muhammad Yunus had condemned the lynching of Das amid the ongoing cycle of protests and said “there is no space for such violence in new Bangladesh” although nothing significant has been done to safeguard the interests of Hindus in the country and provide them adequate security.
Seven persons were later arrested after the killing triggered a furore across the world and sparked off protests across India.
“In the incident of beating to death Sanatan Dharma adherent youth Dipu Chandra Das (27) in Valuka, Mymensingh, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has arrested seven individuals as suspects. The arrested individuals are Md Limon Sarkar (19), Md Tarek Hossain, Md Manik Mia (20), Ershad Ali (39), Nijum Uddin (20), Alomgir Hossain (38), and Md Miraj Hossain Akon (46). RAB-14 conducted operations at various locations and arrested the aforementioned suspects,” Yunus had written on ‘X’.
“We wholeheartedly condemn lynching of a Hindu man in Mymensingh. There is no space for such violence in new Bangladesh. The perpetrators of this heinous crime will not be spared,” the government, meanwhile, said in a post on Facebook.
Bangladesh has been on the boil since December 18 when Sharif Osman Hadi, a youth leader of the radical Inquilab Mancha, known for his anti-India rhetoric, was shot in the head on December 12 in Dhaka while he was returning after offering the Friday prayers in a battery-powered auto-rickshaw.
Hadi, a candidate for the February general elections, died in Singapore.
He had reportedly circulated maps of the so-called ‘Greater Bangladesh’ that included the Northeastern States.
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