DHAKA: A self-proclaimed spiritual leader was beaten to death by a mob in Bangladesh on Saturday (April 11), officials said, in the latest violence fuelled by religious tensions in the country.
Muslim-majority Bangladesh has seen a sharp rise in religious intolerance and mob violence since the 2024 uprising that toppled the government of former premier Sheikh Hasina.
Shamim Reza Jahangir, believed to be in his 60s, died from his injuries after hundreds of people stormed his residence in Kushtia district and thrashed him with sticks, chief administrative official Touhid Hasan said.
The mob was angered after an old video of the man resurfaced online on Friday. It allegedly showed him claiming that those who wrote the Quran were illiterate and those who read it were worse off.
"Sensing that something might happen, police went to the spot, and the administration tried their best. But an angry mob of more than 200 people attacked his residence," bin Hasan said.
Jahangir was taken to a nearby hospital, where doctors declared him dead.
Police sources said that Jahangir had been briefly arrested in 2021 for making comments that angered villagers.
The sources said the video that circulated Friday was recorded during that time.
Bangladesh police spokesman AHM Sahadat Hossain said an investigation was underway.
Mob attacks are frequently reported in the South Asian nation of 170 million people.
At least 153 people have been killed by mob violence from August 2024 -- when Hasina's rule ended and she fled to India -- to September 2025, according to a report by Dhaka-based rights organisation Odhikar.
Saturday's killing was the first since the Bangladesh Nationalist Party swept to power in February. - AFP
