Yet another boy has been tortured and killed in Bangladesh,
police said.
Mohammad Raja,
17, is the fourth boy between ages 10 and 17 to be beaten to death in just over
five weeks. Public protests have erupted across the nation and 13 people were
charged in a highly publicized killing that was recorded and posted on social
media.
Raja was found
badly injured Monday in front of his house in the Hazaribagh area of Dhaka, the
capital. He was taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital and died soon after
admission.
"We've
received a complaint over the lynching of a boy," said Kazi Moinul Islam
of the Hazaribagh police station. "We've already arrested three people who
are being interrogated,"
Family members
said Raja, a steel shop employee, was picked up by a neighbor who claimed that
the boy had stolen a mobile phone set.
Police said they
believe Raja was tortured because his body had bruises and scars.
Suspected
thieves are often attacked by mobs in Bangladesh, according to reports, but the
killing of the boys has outraged many.
Public protests
broke out after the July 8
killing of Samiul Alam Rajon, 13, was recorded and posted on social media.
The clip shows
Rajon, tied to a post and beaten with a metal rod while his attackers laugh and
jeer during the attack in Kumargaon, on the outskirts of Sylhet. The victim's
pleas for mercy, or just a glass of water, were ignored by his attackers.
Rajon, a
vegetable vendor, was accused of stealing a rickshaw van used for carrying
goods.
Footage of the
killing, recorded by one of the attackers, was widely viewed on social
networks, prompting hundreds of angry protesters to take to the streets,
demanding the killers be punished. Protesters claimed Rajon's death was not
isolated, but rather exposed shortcomings in the country's criminal justice
system.
Police said that
13 people have been charged in that crime.
Mohammad Rakib,
12, died August 3 in Khulna. Authorities said he was tortured by his former
employer who was angry because Rakib took a job at another car repair shop.
On August 4,
Robiul Awal, 10, died in Borguna. He was beaten and his eyes were gouged out
after he'd allegedly stolen fish.
It's not known
whether anybody was arrested in Rakib's or Awal's deaths.
Statistics of
child rights group Bangladesh Shishu Adhikar Forum show that 191 children were
slain in the first seven months of the current year, up from 146 during the
same period of 2014 and 128 in the corresponding period of 2013.
A local rights
organization, Odhikar, said in a recent report that at least 903 were lynched
across the country since January 2009 and at least 60 people were lynched in
the past six months.
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