Bangladesh Saw Surge of Mob Killings in 2024: Rights Groups

Mob killings in Bangladesh surge after August revolution, with 128 deaths recorded in 2024, say rights groups. [Image via AFP/File]

DHAKA: Mob killings in Bangladesh surged after the August revolution last year that toppled the iron-fisted rule of ex-leader Sheikh Hasina, three rights groups said on Wednesday.

Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK), a leading Bangladeshi human rights organisation, said it had recorded at least 128 people killed by mobs in 2024.

Of those, 96 took place from August onwards — meaning roughly three-quarters of the mob killings occurred after Hasina fled Bangladesh.

“Lynchings and mob beatings reflect the growing intolerance and radicalism in society,” said senior ASK member Abu Ahmed Faijul Kabir.

Also See: Bangladesh says Hasina Charged With ‘Crimes Against Humanity’

Two other human rights organisations reported similar numbers — around three times more than the average of the previous five years.

The Manabadhikar Songskriti Foundation said it had documented 146 people killed by mobs in 2024, while the Human Rights Support Society recorded 173 deaths.

While the reasons for the mob killings were not given, revenge attacks surged after Hasina´s fall, targeting members of her former ruling Awami League party.

“We urge citizens to seek help from the police, instead of taking the law into their own hands,” said Inamul Haque Sagar, a police spokesman.

Beauty Ara described how her husband Abdullah Al Masud — a former leader of the student wing of Hasina´s Awami League — was beaten to death on September 7.

This news is sourced from The News and is intended for informational purposes only.

News Desk

Your trusted source for insightful journalism. Stay informed with our compelling coverage of global affairs, business, technology, and more.

Recent

Pakistan’s Doctrine of Verifiable Peace: Realism in the Face of Proxy Politics

Pakistan’s Doctrine of Verifiable Peace: Realism in the Face of Proxy Politics

Pakistan’s Doctrine of Verifiable Peace represents a major shift from fraternal idealism to strategic realism in South Asia’s volatile security landscape. Rooted in classical realist thought, the doctrine emphasizes verification over trust, deterrence over sentiment, and conditional diplomacy over blind faith. Confronting the twin challenges of cross-border militancy and Indian-backed proxy networks in Afghanistan, Islamabad now seeks peace that is enforceable, monitored, and verifiable, anchoring regional stability on responsibility, not rhetoric.

Read More »
When Insurgents Rule: The Taliban’s Crisis of Governance

When Insurgents Rule: The Taliban’s Crisis of Governance

The Taliban’s confrontation with Pakistan reveals a deeper failure at the heart of their rule: an insurgent movement incapable of governing the state it conquered. Bound by rigid ideology and fractured by internal rivalries, the Taliban have turned their military victory into a political and economic collapse, exposing the limits of ruling through insurgent logic.

Read More »
The Great Unknotting: America’s Tech Break with China, and the Return of the American System

The Great Unknotting: America’s Tech Break with China, and the Return of the American System

As the U.S. unwinds decades of technological interdependence with China, a new industrial and strategic order is emerging. Through selective decoupling, focused on chips, AI, and critical supply chains, Washington aims to restore domestic manufacturing, secure data sovereignty, and revive the Hamiltonian vision of national self-reliance. This is not isolationism but a recalibration of globalization on America’s terms.

Read More »
Inside the Istanbul Talks: How Taliban Factionalism Killed a Peace Deal

Inside the Istanbul Talks: How Taliban Factionalism Killed a Peace Deal

The collapse of the Turkiye-hosted talks to address the TTP threat was not a diplomatic failure but a calculated act of sabotage from within the Taliban regime. Deep factional divides—between Kandahar, Kabul, and Khost blocs—turned mediation into chaos, as Kabul’s power players sought to use the TTP issue as leverage for U.S. re-engagement and financial relief. The episode exposed a regime too fractured and self-interested to act against terrorism or uphold sovereignty.

Read More »
The Indo-Afghan Arc: Rewriting Pakistan’s Strategic Geography

The Indo-Afghan Arc: Rewriting Pakistan’s Strategic Geography

The deepening India-Afghanistan engagement marks a new strategic era in South Asia. Beneath the façade of humanitarian cooperation lies a calculated effort to constrict Pakistan’s strategic space, from intelligence leverage and soft power projection to potential encirclement on both eastern and western fronts. Drawing from the insights of Iqbal and Khushhal Khan Khattak, this analysis argues that Pakistan must reclaim its strategic selfhood, strengthen regional diplomacy, and transform its western border from a vulnerability into a vision of regional connectivity and stability.

Read More »