Students Protest In Bangladesh Over Killing Of Hindu Scrap Trader, Accused Allegedly Dance Over Body

13th July 2025 at 6:30 PM

1 minute read

New Delhi : Lynching of a scrap trader sparked an outrage across Bangladesh. Hundreds of students took to the streets here on Saturday accusing the Interim government of failure to contain mob violence. According to sources, police have arrested five persons, two of them with illegally possessed firearms in connection with the lynching of scrap dealer Lal Chand Sohag. A video of the incident that went viral on Thursday showed Sohag being lynched with chunks of concrete slabs and then, after confirming his death, the attackers virtually dancing on his body.

Who gave you beasts the right to kill people? What is the Interim (government) doing when extortionists are carrying out mayhem? were slogans chanted by students in their campuses, witnesses and local media reports said. Students of private universities such as the BRAC University, NSU, East West University and government-run Eden College staged the demonstrations on Saturday while the premier Dhaka University and Jagannath University erupted in protests soon after Lal’s brutal murder video went viral.

Newspaper Prothom Alo said a murder case was filed with Kotwali Police Station in the capital on Thursday by Lal Chand’s sister Manjuara Begum, 42. The case names 19 accused and includes another 15–20 unidentified suspects. BDNews24 said a group of activists from the youth front of former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) allegedly killed Sohag, who was also a former activist of the same outfit. The party said it immediately expelled four perpetrators accused of lynching.

Meanwhile, Home Affairs adviser of the Interim government, retired lieutenant general Jahangir Alam Chowdhury said police arrested five culprits, two with illegally possessed firearms, and said that “the incident was very unfortunate for a civilized country.”