Man stoned to death in Dhaka streets: Indian media misidentifies victim as Hindu

This story uses only screenshots and not the actual video in view of the graphic nature of the footage.

Multiple Indian media outlets, including PTI, NDTV, Republic, India Today, News 24, Live Hindustan, News24 NDTV World, Dainik Bhaskar, and WION reported on a disturbing video showing the lynching of a man in Bangladesh, identifying the victim as a Hindu trader named Lal Chand Sohag. 

In the disturbing footage of the said incident, an individual is seen assaulting the victim with a stone slab, while another person is seen stomping and jumping over the body. All this takes place in broad daylight with a crowd of onlookers present. According to reports, the gruesome incident took place on July 9 in Rojoni Ghosh Lane near Mitford hospital in the old Dhaka. The barbarity of the attack, captured on video, triggered massive outrage in the neighbouring country with students from several universities staging protests in Dhaka.

On July 13, Republic published an article headlined, “Shocking! Hindu scrap dealer lynched with concrete slabs in Bangladesh; attackers dance on his body after death.” The report identified the victim as Lal Chand Sohag, a scrap vendor. Citing a report by Prothom Alo, it noted that the victim’s sister had filed a murder case with Kotwali police on Thursday.

India Today ran a PTI wire story stating that a Hindu trader was bludgeoned to death with a concrete slab, and that the attackers danced on his body after confirming he was dead.

Similar claims were made by several other Indian outlets. Screenshots of these reports are available in the gallery below.

It is worth noting that NDTV has since deleted both its tweet and the original article. Meanwhile, NDTV World, PTI, and WION have updated their reports, removing the term “Hindu” from the description of the deceased.

The claim that the victim was a Hindu was also amplified by social media users. Raushan Sinha (@MrSinha_), a far-Right influencer, shared the purported video on July 13 on X, claiming that “Atrocities against Hindus continue in Bangladesh”, as a Hindu trader was lynched by Islamists in broad daylight. 

Voice of Bangladeshi Hindus (VHindus71) shared the video on X, urging world leaders to save Bangladeshi citizens from the “Jammat-backed government of Mohammed Yunus”.

Another X-account, MeghUpdates (@MeghUpdates), shared the video claiming that Islamists had killed and danced over the corpse of a Hindu trader in Bangladesh.

Sinha later deleted his post, whereas the post by the other two handles are still live.

Fact Check

A simple keyword search led us to several Bangladeshi news reports that identified the slain to be a 39-year-old scrap dealer, Mohammed Sohag, alias Lal Chand. This indicates that the victim is not a Hindu. 

According to a report by Prothom Alo from July 12, Sohag was brutally beaten up and bludgeoned with bricks and stones before he was killed. After the assault, his clothes were stripped, and a few assailants were seen jumping over his corpse. Investigators and local sources indicated that the killing was a result of an extortion-related dispute.

The report names Lal Chand’s sister as Manjuara Begum, who filed the FIR with Kotwali police, naming 19 individuals as accused and listing an additional 15 to 20 unidentified suspects in connection with the lynching.

The Dhaka Metropolitan Police, in a press release issued on July 11 evening, confirmed the arrests of two suspects — Mahmudul and Tariq — in the capital, whereas the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) detained two suspects from near the Ibn Sina Hospital in Keraniganj, involved in the murder of Md Sohag. 

Alt News also located a fact-check report by a Bangladeshi government page, Chief Advisor’s Press Wing Facts. The page debunked the communal narratives shared by the Indian media outlets and clearly mentioned that the deceased man was named Mohammed Sohag, also known as Lal Chand, and he was a Muslim businessman. He was the son of Md Aiyub Ali and Aleya Begum. He was married to Lucky Begum and had a son named Sohan.

On Friday, Sohag was laid to rest beside his mother’s grave in his ancestral village of Bandargachhia, Ward 7, Dhalua Union, Barguna Sadar Upazila, following the funeral prayers (Salat al-Janazah).

To sum up, the Indian media falsely reported that the man who was stoned to death on the streets of Dhaka was  a Hindu trader. The slain man is a Muslim businessman named Mohammed Sohag, who was allegedly killed for not paying extortion money. There is no communal angle to the murder.