Drug addicts tied up an autorickshaw driver with his own clothes and burned him to death in Kishoreganj because he actively protested their fatal habit.
The incident took place in Kishoreganj Sadar upazila, in Amati Shivpur area, on Thursday night. The victim was Md Shamim Miah, 24, resident of the same area.
Shamim’s uncle Manik Miah said Shamim had always been vocal against drug addiction and vehemently protested when he saw anyone taking drugs.
That is why he protested vehemently when he found local boys Jonny, Al Amin, Shafiq and one other taking drugs inside a fishery near his house.
However, Shamim’s open disgust at the boys’ addiction did not sit well with them, and they started beating Shamim. The altercation was broken up by the locals who mediated between Shamim and the boys and resolved the issue.
However, around 8pm on Thursday, the same group of boys stopped Shamim on his way home and took him to a fishery in the area, where they attacked him again.
They beat Shamim, took off his shirt and trousers, tied his hands and feet with his trousers and blindfolded him with his shirt.
Then they poured petrol on Shamim and set him on fire, before fleeing the scene.
Shamim jumped into a pond nearby to save himself. Hearing his scream, locals rushed to the spot and rescued him, who had sustained critical burns by then.
They rushed him to Kishoreganj General Hospital, where the doctors referred him to the burn institute of Dhaka Medical College Hospital after seeing his critical condition.
But Shamim succumbed to his injuries on his way to Dhaka, around 1am yesterday near Kalikaprasad area in Bhairab.
“He [Shamim] sustained 80% burn injuries,” said Dr Manoj Kumar Roy, the on-duty doctor at Kishoreganj General Hospital’s emergency room.
When police went to the scene later, they found a petrol bottle, match box and burnt clothes. They even found charred parts of Shamim’s body at the scene, sources told the Dhaka Tribune.
Shamim’s body was sent to Kishoreganj General Hospital for an autopsy when this report was filed, said Mir Mosharraf Hossain, OC at the police station.
Shamim’s uncle Manik filed a case against Jonny, Al Amin, Shafiq, Sajon and a few others with Kishoreganj Sadar Model police station yesterday. Among them, police arrested Sajon and Jonny separately late yesterday afternoon.
Police also detained Al Amin’s mother Nasima Akhtar for interrogation. The interrogation for all three are in progress and police are working to arrest the rest of the culprits, the OC said.
