DHAKA/NEW DELHI, Dec. 20 -- Bangladesh remained on edge on Saturday amid concerns over the lynching of a Hindu man and the funeral of a slain youth leader whose death sparked nationwide unrest. Dipu Chandra Das, a 25-year-old garment factory worker, was lynched by a mob and his body set on fire over alleged blasphemy in Baluka, Mymensingh, on Thursday. Chief Adviser of the interim government Muhammad Yunus announced that 10 people have been arrested in connection with the incident, seven by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and three by the police. Das was reportedly beaten outside his factory, hanged from a tree, and his body left on the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway before being set on fire. The police recovered the body and sent it for autopsy. The interim government condemned the lynching, stating there is no space for such violence in the new Bangladesh and that the perpetrators will not be spared. The Hindu population has been affected by several incidents targeting minority communities since the ouster of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina in August last year.

Meanwhile, the country also witnessed the funeral of prominent youth leader Sharif Osman Hadi, whose death had triggered unrest. Hadi, 32, spokesperson of 'Inqilab Mancha,' was shot on December 12 during his election campaign and died in Singapore on Thursday. Chief Adviser Yunus, along with his advisory council and Army chief General Waker-uz-Zaman, attended the funeral at the Parliament complex, alongside politicians from BNP, Jamaat-e-Islami, and the National Citizen Party. Tens of thousands participated under tight security, chanting slogans against India. Hadi, who gained prominence after launching the radical right-wing group 'Inquilab Mancha' following last year's July Uprising that toppled Hasina, was buried at Dhaka University beside the mausoleum of poet Kazi Nazrul Islam. His death comes amid continued political turbulence, with Yunus assuming interim leadership as a nominee of the student-led SAD campaign that had sought Hasina's ouster.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.