Ekushey Padak-winning photojournalist and human rights activist Shahidul Alam is under fire for a controversial social media post that critics say trivialises the horrific lynching of Hindu garment worker Dipu Chandra Das, framing the murder as an understandable outburst of public anger rather than condemning it outright as a hate crime.
In a post on Facebook early Wednesday, Alam, a deep state actor funded by Soros, described the scene where Dipu Das’s corpse was hung from a tree and set on fire in the middle of a busy road in Mymensingh, noting it “happened in public and was allowed to happen.”
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He added: “I understand how angry people are and the resentment towards the authoritarian Sheikh Hasina and her regime, as well as against India for sheltering killers, but we cannot replicate the fascist behavior ourselves. That is not the Bangladesh we dream of.”
The statement has sparked widespread outrage among Hindu communities, opposition figures, and international observers, who accuse Alam of softening the blow on radical Islamists responsible for the killing by linking it to political grievances against former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and India.
Dipu Das, 27, was falsely accused of blasphemy, beaten to death, and publicly incinerated on December 18โan act with no evidence of wrongdoing, as confirmed by Rapid Action Battalion investigations.
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Shahidul Alam, once a voice for the oppressed, now sounds like an apologist for mob violence, said activists. By “understanding” the anger and dragging in Sheikh Hasina and India, he’s essentially justifying a lynching as collateral damage in some anti-fascist narrative. This trivialises the genocide-like attacks on Hindusโover 2,442 incidents since August 2024.
Alam, founder of the Drik Picture Library and a vocal critic of Hasina’s regime, has long positioned himself as a champion of human rights. He was arrested in 2018 under the Digital Security Act for comments on student protests, earning him global acclaim as a free speech icon. However, detractors now claim his post reveals a selective activism that overlooks Islamist extremism when it aligns with anti-Hasina sentiments.
Indian journalist and columnist Pratim Ranjan Bose writes: โThere is no excuse for debauchery, Mr Shahidul Alam. Have the courage to admit the truth. You have let loose the extremists and fundamentalists in the name of โrevolutionโ and are now taking refuge under #Delhi and Sheikh #Hasina after killing a #Hindu man for alleged blasphemy. There is a limit to nonsense.โ
The post comes amid heightened tensions, with radicals exploiting radical mobster Osman Hadi’s death to incite anti-India and anti-Hindu violence. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have condemned the surge in minority attacks under Yunus’ interim government, which has released hundreds of militants and unbanned Jamaat-e-Islami.
As Bangladesh grapples with pre-election unrest, Alam’s remarks have ignited calls for a boycott of his work and revocation of his Ekushey Padak, the country’s second-highest civilian award.
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