Kolkata: Congress holds protest outside Bangladesh High Commission over atrocities against minorities

Visuals from Bangladesh unrest

Congress workers staged a protest against the atrocities on minorities in Bangladesh, in front of the Bangladesh High Commission in Kolkata on Monday.

West Bengal Congress leader Ashutosh Chatterjee said the External Affairs Minister should address the issue.

"Humanity is under attack. Both Hindus and Muslim are being killed. Don't bring religion into this. BJP wants to polarise the issue. We condemn the atrocities in Bangladesh. Priyanka Gandhi was right. The Foreign Minister should wake up," he said.

Earlier, Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra urged the Centre to take cognisance of the increasing violence against Hindu, Christian, and Buddhist minorities after the murder of Hindu youth Deepu Chandra Das in Bangladesh.

The protests came in the backdrop of a mob lynching of the Hindu youth, Dipu Chandra Das, a worker in a garment factory, in Bangladesh's Mymensingh district.

According to reports, Dipu Das, who was beaten to death by a mob over alleged blasphemy charges, had his body hanged and set on fire on December 18.

The Daily Star, citing Mymensingh's Additional Superintendent of Police, Abdullah Al Mamun, stated that a factory official had informed Bhaluka police that a group of workers attacked Dipu inside the factory, accusing him of making communal remarks.

Factory sources told The Daily Star that the assailants later took Dipu out of the factory premises, where residents also joined the attack, resulting in his death.

However, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB)-14 Company Commander in Mymensingh, Md Samsuzzaman, told The Daily Star that investigators found no evidence suggesting the deceased had posted or written anything on Facebook that could have hurt religious sentiments, adding that neither residents nor fellow garment factory workers could point to any such activity by the victim.

The victim's brother, Apu Chandra Das, also filed a case at Bhaluka Police Station on Friday, naming 140 to 150 unidentified individuals as accused. The incident sparked widespread outrage and condemnation among political leaders, religious organisations and minority groups in Bangladesh and India.