Fatal mob beatings of child abduction suspects have prompted the law enforcers to warn the people not to take the law into their own hands.
In a warning issued on Saturday, Police Headquarters reminded the people that killing someone suspected to be a kidnapper in mob beating is a crime.
A week ago, the law enforcement agencies arrested eight people on charges of spreading rumours on Facebook that “human heads and blood are required to build the Padma Bridge”.
Besides making the arrests, police rescued three others from mobs that were beating them on suspicion that they were child abductors on that day.
The arrests came after Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has ordered officials to track down the people who have spread the rumour.
Police in Bhola had earlier detained a man on charges of spreading on social media the rumour that “children were being abducted for sacrifice by beheading”.
The Bridges Division in a notice urged the people not to be misled by the rumour.
But at least three fatalities from mob beating of suspected child abductors were reported in Dhaka, Narayanganj and Moulvibazar on Saturday after a man was lynched for beheading a child in Netrokona last Thursday.
At Uttar Badda in the capital, an angry crowd beat to death a 42-year-old woman identified as Taslima Begum Renu on Saturday morning on suspicion that she was a kidnapper.
The mob caught Renu, a mother of two from Mohakhali, outside a government primary school, said Badda Police Station Inspector Yasin Gazi.
Her daughter was living with her while the son with the father after the couple was separated two years ago, said Nasir Uddin Tito, a relative of Renu.
Renu, wearing a burqa, went to the school to inquire about the admission of her children, according to Tito.
The relative also filed a case without naming any suspect.
An unidentified young man, believed to be in his late 20s, is the victim of lynching in Narayanganj’s Siddhirganj.
He was caught red-handed while trying to kidnap a seven-year-old girl, who was on her way to school, in the morning at Mizmizi, police and witnesses said.
The girl was crying, arousing suspicion of the locals, Siddhirganj Police Station Inspector Jasim Uddin said. Her father later arrived on the scene to her rescue.
People in the Painadi neighbourhood of the district also beat up and injured a woman on similar charges, the inspector said. Police rescued and detained the woman, Sharmin Begum, 25, later after being informed about the incident.
Sharmin, wife of Salman Shah from Patuakhali, lives in Keraniganj, according to the police officer. Police were investigating why she came to Siddhirganj, he said. The woman was admitted to a hospital.
The incident in Moulvibazar occurred late in the night when a mob beat up a man to death at Kamalganj.
The deceased was about 50 years old, Kamalganj Police Station OC Md Arifur Rahman said.
‘Gopal’, medical supervisor of Deorachhara Tea Garden, where the incident took place, said workers detained and beat up the man when he failed to reply to their questions about himself properly.
He was declared dead at Moulvibazar General Hospital later.
Source: Bdnews24.