Shawdesh Desk:

A rickshaw-van puller, who was critically injured in mob beating on suspicion of being a child lifter at Kalihati in Tangail, died at Dhaka Medical College Hospital in Dhaka Monday morning, eight days after the incident took place on July 21.

The deceased was Minu Mia, 30, son of Kurban Ali of Bhuapur in Tangail. With his demise, the number of deaths from lynching over rumours of child lifting rose to nine this month.

Kalihati police station officer-in-charge Hasan Al Mamun said that the deceased became a victim of mob beating when he went to Sayarhat under his police station on July 21 to buy a fishing net.

He said that they, on information from locals, rescued him and took him to Tangail Sadar Hospital but, as his condition deteriorated, he was shifted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital for better treatment.

The police official said that the victim’s brother Rajib Hossain lodged a case with his police station on July 22 and police arrested six people in raids on the same night.

Dhaka Medical College Hospital police outpost in-charge Bachchu Mia said that the victim died around 10:30am on Monday and relatives took the body to their village home in the afternoon following the post-mortem examination.

The victim’s wife Rina Begum, now pregnant, told New Age that they had a seven year old son and demanded justice for her husband’s killing. ‘No one should endure my fate. My baby in the womb will never see its father,’ she said in an emotion-choked voice.

In early July, a rumour spread across the country through social media that the construction of Padma Bridge would need human sacrifices, and, since mid-July, a number of mob beating incidents were reported across the country, suspecting the victims to be child lifters.

The rumour compelled the Roads and Bridges Division and the police to issue media releases urging the people not to pay heed to the rumours and not to take law in their own hands.

The police also have been campaigning against the rumour since Thursday and warned that all the perpetrators — those who spread rumours and those involved in mob beating — would be brought to book.

On July 24, IGP Mohammad Javed Patwari in a press briefing at Police Headquarter said that eight people were killed in mob beating by spreading rumours of child lifting so far while police investigations showed that all such victims were innocent.

New Age correspondent in Islamic University in Kushtia reported that teachers and students of IU brought out a procession on the campus on Monday to create awareness about rumours that caused lynching on suspicion of child lifting.

Rapid Action Battalion in a text message said that they arrested one from Mirpur area in Kushtia on Monday for spreading rumour of child lifting on social media.