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DHAKA: Hundreds of people in a Bangladeshi city beat and lynched a man on Thursday who had allegedly desecrated the Muslim holy book, police said.
The crowd seized two men who had been in official custody after they were accused of stepping on a Koran at the main mosque in the city of Burimari, near the border with India, police said. The second man escaped wounded.
“They beat a man to death and then burned his body,” district police chief Abida Sultana told AFP.
Police took the two men into protective custody at a municipal office after the allegations were made by worshipers at the Burimari Jame Masjid mosque.
They said more than 1,000 people stormed the council office and police fired 17 rounds of real shotgun in an attempt to calm the crowd, but could not prevent the 35-year-old man from being captured.
The victim was beaten to death before the crowd set fire to the office and burned the body in the street.
The incident came amid growing anger in the Muslim-majority country over comments on Islam made by French President Emmanuel Macron.
Tens of thousands of people took part in anti-French demonstrations this week in the capital Dhaka and in the port city of Chittagong. More demonstrations have been called for Friday after weekly Muslim prayers.
