Grisly video surfaces of mob singing around youth before murdering

Even as the nation grapples with the news of vicious mob lynching at two of the country’s leading universities, a video has emerged on social media of a mob singing and dancing around a tied-up youth, apparently before killing him.

The incident took place on 13 August in Chattogram city, but its video was posted on facebook on Sunday night.

The deceased in the video is Shahadat Hossain, 24, and he was a fruit seller in the port city’s Folmondy area. He hailed from Noakhali but lived with his wife Sharmin in the port city’s Kotwali area.

The video shows a feeble Shahadat is tied to two steel pipes by the hands – beneath the Akhtaruzzaman Flyover in the port city’s Sholoshahar Gate no 2 area.

A few youths are apparently beating him while singing a regional song of Chattogram and also dancing. Some are heard whistling and some others are cheering, the video shows.

According to the case statement, Shahadat left home for work around 2:00 pm on 13 August.

When his wife Sharmin called him in the evening, he said he would return home shortly. But, Shahadat didn’t return home hours later. As Sharmin called him again, his mobile phone was found switched off.

Police recovered Shahadat’s body from the city’s Probortak area on 14 August. On the evening of the day, the victim’s uncle Harun saw on facebook that Shahadat’s body was lying beside a road near Badnashah Mazar.

Harun filed a case with the Panchlaish police station accusing unidentified persons the following day.

Officer in-Charge (OC) Md Solaiman of Panchlaish police station said the victim’s wife identified Shahadat in the video after it went viral.

“We are trying to identify those who beat Shahadat, and unearth the motive behind the killing,” said the OC expecting to be successful in this regard soon.

Mentionable, on 18 September, a group of students beat to death a youth named Tofazzal Hossain on suspicion of stealing at Fazlul Haque Muslim Hall of Dhaka University while a leader of Bangladesh Chhatra League’s (BCL) Jahangirnagar University unit was also lynched by a mob.

Earlier, on 7 September, Abdullah Al Masud, a former leader of BCL Rajshahi University unit, was also beaten to death.