November 16, 2024: 21-year old Hindu man Rhidoy Robi Dash, a barber by profession, was working in his own barber shop in the bazar. According to Rhidoy’s relatives, a group of local Muslim people including a few Muslim Clerics took him out of his barber shop at around 8 o’clock on Friday night. They beat him up in a nearby clubroom and handed him over to Karimganj Military camp. The very next day Saturday, his relatives were informed that Rhidoy Robi Dash died in hospital while going under treatment.
On Nov 18, 2024, DW Bangla News reported that the hospital doctor as well as the victim’s family members have observed severe injury marks on Rhidoy Robi Dash’s dead body. However, the Government authorities including the UP Chairman, the UP Member, and the Captain of the Army Camp said that they did not touch Rhidoy (মৃত হৃদয় রবিদাসের শরীরে গুরুতর আঘাতের চিহ্ন চিকিৎসক দেখেছেন, পরিবারের সদস্যরাও দেখেছেন ৷ কিন্তু ইউপি চেয়ারম্যান, ইউপি সদস্য এবং সেনাক্যাম্পের অধিনায়ক বলছেন হৃদয়কে তারা স্পর্শই করেননি৷).
Rhidoy’s family and the Assistant Director of the hospital where Rhidoy succumbed to his injuries spoke on camera to the reporter of Somoy TV as below:
Three Muslim clerics along with the local government administration member and chairman summoned him and took him inside a nearby club room in the market area. After Rhidoy was taken inside the Military Camp, he was beaten. Rhidoy’s father and family members waited outside the Military Camp through the night with a hope to see him. But the Military told them that they would be allowed to see him the next morning. The father and family then came back home. The military Camp made a phone call to the family the next morning and communicated that Rhidoy is dead.
The Assistant director of Karimganj President Abdul Hamid Medical College hospital Dr. Kamrul Islam Palash told the reporter that the Military staff brought Rhidoy to the hospital in the deed of Thursday night at around 2:10 AM. Later, he died while going under treatment at the hospital ICU (Intensive Care Unit). According the doctor, Rhidoy was lightly beaten. However, he was bleeding through his mouth at the time of admission.
Neither the Military officers nor the Police officers that are in charge of the area refused to talk in front of camera. However, Kishoreganj Military camp’s in-charge Lieutenant-Captain Mohammad Riazul Islam told the reporter that Rhidoy Robi Dash had attempted to convert and marry a local Muslim girl, and that he had a plan to smuggle the girl.
The Police Super of Kishoreganj told the reporter that the dead body is sent to Shaheed Syed Nazrul Islam Medical College Hospital in Kishoreganj for autopsy. He also said that legal actions are being taken.
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Victims: Hindu young man Rhidoy Rabidash and his family
Location of Attack: Noapati union, Karimganj upazilla, Kishoreganj district, Bangladesh
Date of Murder: November 16, 2024
News media: DW Bangla reporting
Social media reporting: Somoy TV posted on YouTube and Facebook post