Most recently, an elderly Hindu barber and his son were assaulted and handed over to the police by an Islamist mob, widely known as Touhidi Janata, alleging blasphemy.
The mob claimed that Paresh Chandra Shil and his son Bishnu Chandra Shil criticised the Prophet for polygamy.
Bishnuโs wife Dipti Rani Shil told BBC Bangla that the mob made false allegations. โMy father-in-law has confirmed to me that there was an argument between them over money,” she said.
The two were harassed in a planned way and falsely blamed for insulting Islam following an argument, as a customer wanted to pay Tk10 less after a haircut.
Meanwhile, the video of a local police officer has gone viral, where the OC is heard saying to the mob that he would make sure that the accused do not get bail.
In recent months, over a dozen incidents took place in Bangladesh where the Touhidi Janata blamed people, mostly Hindus, for blasphemy and attacked them. Moreover, around 100 shrines have been vandalised, looted and torched.
This Touhidi Janata has been a common banner of Islamist parties and groups for several decades. The banner became popular, hatred against non-Muslims and moderate Muslims increased, and fatal attacks on them skyrocketed after the introduction of Islam as the state religion in 1988.
Since the Jamaat-backed interim government took office in August last year, the Touhidi Janata also barred religious rituals of non-Muslims in Dhaka and elsewhere, including the Dhakeshwari Temple and Ramna Kali Temple. The destruction of temples has been commonplace.
Recently, a mob demonstrated outside the Hindu temple at Dhakaโs Khilkhet, demanding that the temple be removed.
However, even though the number of mob attacks has been a record high, the pro-Islamist interim government could not take any measures to prevent any incident or against the perpetrators afterwards.
Mufti Imran Bin Bashir says the Prophetโs polygamy, attraction for children like Ayesha, and extramarital affair with Umm Hani, are sensitive issues to the Muslims. However, these are facts that are mentioned in the Quran and Hadiths.
In a recent video, Mufti Imran cited Sahih-al-Bukhari Hadith No. 268, where Anas Bin Malik said: “The Prophet used to visit all his wives in a round during the day and night, and they were 11 in number.”
Asked about his physical strength, Anas replied: “We used to say that the Prophet was given the strength of 30 [men].โ
Not only for alleged blasphemy, but the same pro-government mobs also swoop on peopleโtorture them to death or hand them over to the police after an assaultโfor any criticism of the chief adviser, his Kingโs party, the National Citizen Party (NCP), Jamaat-e-Islami and the interim government, and also for supporting the Awami League.
In Manikganj, Dhaka Universityโs fine arts student Shakil Ahmed committed suicide at his home in Dakshin Jamsha village of Singair Upazila on June 10, following harassment by an Islamist mob.
Shakil revealed his ordeals in multiple Facebook posts and tried to mitigate the situation by apologising to all for his comment on the prophetโs polygamy that he made long ago.
Recently, one of his friends threatened to give him a lesson by raising the old issue. Touhidi Janata went to his village home several times and harassed his family members.
Police say Shakil made derogatory comments on Facebook. He committed suicide due to family honour and self-esteem when it went viral recently.
A case of unnatural death has been registered in this incident, even though he was forced to commit suicide, which is a punishable offense.
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