NEW DELHI: On December 18, 2025, Dipu Chandra Das, a 25-year-old Hindu garment factory worker from Bhaluka in Mymensingh, Bangladesh, was lynched to death by a mob on unverified blasphemy allegations. The mob brutally beat him, tied his lifeless body to a tree, and set it ablaze, leaving his charred remains on public display. The horrific incident took place amid nationwide unrest following the death of political activist Sharif Osman Hadi.
Initial police reports describe a frenzied crowd of 140-150 people descending on Dipu after rumours spread that he had insulted religious sentiments. There is no credible evidence supporting these claims, and his family has denied the allegations. Despite this, the mob carried out a lynching that shames the 21st century.
This lynching is not an aberration. It is part of a disturbing and growing pattern of violence against Hindus and other minorities that has intensified since the ousting of the previous government in August 2024. According to credible reports, Bangladesh saw 2,200 incidents of violence against Hindus in 2024, up sharply from 302 in 2023 and just 47 in 2022, including assaults, threats, temple desecrations, and mob attacks.
Additionally, minority rights groups documented over 2,400 incidents of violence against religious minorities between August 2024 and July 2025, including murders, rape, looting, and temple attacks. In July 2025, the Gangachara Hindu neighbourhood attack saw homes looted and vandalised, forcing families to flee in fear. This violence is not random. It reflects a broader systematic failure of state protection, emboldening mobs to act with impunity.
Yet while international organisations have loudly condemned the death of Osman Hadi, a radical Islamist student leader whose shooting sparked recent unrest, not a single major human rights body has issued a similar statement on Dipu Chandra Das’s lynching. This selective outrage exposes a double standard in global human rights advocacy. Human rights are universal, not negotiable. Silence in the face of murder is complicity.
We call on governments, international institutions, and civil society to:
• unequivocally condemn the lynching of Dipu Chandra Das and all violence against minorities in Bangladesh;
• call for independent investigations and accountability for perpetrators and those who enable them;
• and demand meaningful legal reforms to protect vulnerable communities from mob violence and false blasphemy allegations.
The killing of Dipu Chandra Das is not merely a tragic individual crime; it is a grim symbol of a wider collapse of minority protection, rule of law, and moral accountability in Bangladesh. The silence of international human rights organisations in this case stands in stark contrast to their swift reactions elsewhere, raising uncomfortable questions about selective advocacy and political convenience.
