Mob ties teens to bridge, beats one dead

A 15-year-old boy was beaten to death and two others were injured in an attack carried out by a mob of seven or eight people in Chattogram's Fatikchhari upazila early yesterday.

Deceased Md Rihan Uddin Mahin was the son of grocer Lokman of Chenga area. The injured two, aged around 15, were admitted to hospital.

Locals said Mahin used to help his father at their shop.

The mob attacked around 3:30am near Chengar Bridge when the teenagers were returning home from Chattogram city, according to police and locals.

Witnesses said the attackers chased the teenagers, shouting "thieves".

The boys took shelter on the roof of an under-construction building. However, the attackers dragged them down, tied them with ropes to the guard rails of the bridge, and beat them mercilessly.

Mahin died on the spot, ‍said Sub-Inspector Faruk Hossain of Fatikchhari Police Station.

He told The Daily Star that locals confirmed that there had been no incidents of theft in the area at the time of the attack or in recent days. The theft allegation appears to be false.

He said after receiving information, police went to the spot around 6:00am and sent the injured to a hospital with the help of locals.

Before police reached the spot, the attackers fled the scene. However, some locals and journalists who were in the area identified some of them, SI Faruk said.

Police detained two suspects, Noman, 23 and Azad, 35.

Nur Ahmed, officer-in-charge of Fatikchhari Police Station, told this newspaper, "Since the attackers were from the same village, it seems unlikely to be a random mob beating over theft suspicion. We believe an earlier conflict could be a reason for the attack."

Police are conducting raids to arrest the others involved, he said.

Mahin's body was sent to Chattogram Medical College morgue for an autopsy.

Anwar Hossain Sumon, uncle of one of the injured, said his nephew is a 10th grader at a local school. He and two of his friends had gone on a trip to Cox's Bazar. Around 2:30am, after getting off a bus in Chattogram city's Oxygen area, they hired a CNG-run autorickshaw to return home."

He added, "The three boys' homes are within a kilometre of the spot. The family of Mahin had a long-standing conflict with the family of detained suspect Azad."