Mob rule grips Bangladesh after Hasina’s exit; 637 lynched in a year

Bangladesh has seen a sharp escalation in mob violence, rise of Islamists and deterioration in law and order since the uprising which forced Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina out of office on August 5, 2024, after 15 years in power.

At least 637 people, including 41 police officers, were lynched in acts of vigilante justice during this period, marking one of the deadliest waves of extrajudicial killings in the country's recent history. By contrast, 51 lynching deaths were recorded in 2023, under the previous administration, according to a report released by Canada-based Global Centre for Democratic Governance.

The fall of a longstanding regime created both a power vacuum and a public crisis of confidence in the country's justice system, which many now perceive as either absent or co-opted by agendas led by Islamists.


Local human rights bodies have reported that more than 70% of lynching victims since August 2024 had ties to the former ruling Bangladesh Awami League or its affiliated student and labour wings. The Awami League has been banned for the past year and no date has been fixed for the next general election in the country.

Victims of mob violence led by political parties, Islamists and criminals have included religious minorities, particularly Hindus and Ahmadiyya Muslims, accused of blasphemy or conspiracy through viral posts on social media, often with little or no evidence. One of the most horrific incidents involved the public lynching of Lal Chand Sohag, a Hindu social worker, outside Mitford Hospital on July 9. His death was livestreamed across platforms, resulting in both national outrage and fear, according to the Global Centre for Democratic Governance, a platform dedicated to promoting secularism, democracy, social justice and national unity in Bangladesh.