Pir hacked to death in Kushtia: Smoke still rising from shrine

Smoke was still rising from the vandalised shrine in Kushtia’s Daulatpur, where an attack was carried out over allegations of blasphemy. The scene was observed around 9:00am today (Sunday).

Attempts to speak with two women injured in Saturday’s incident revealed visible fear on their faces, and neither agreed to talk to the media.

On the ground, two buildings inside the shrine compound were found extensively damaged. Two semi-pucca structures were reduced to ashes by fire, with smoke still billowing from one of them.

Debris lay scattered across the area. Men, women and children of various ages stood silently around the shrine. In front, 15 to 20 police officers were seen seated on chairs.

Standing in a bamboo grove near the shrine was Fazlur Rahman, elder brother of the slain pir Shamim Reza, also known as Jahangir. A retired assistant teacher of a government primary school, he broke down upon speaking to journalists.

“I saw my brother being hacked before my eyes; his whole body was soaked in blood. Even if he had done something wrong, there could have been a trial. But no human being deserves to be killed like this,” he said.

Fazlur Rahman said that after offering midday prayers at the village mosque, he had returned home and was having lunch when he heard loud commotion outside.

Coming out, he saw around 100 to 150 people carrying out widespread vandalism in front of the shrine and dragging his brother down from the second floor before attacking him indiscriminately with sharp weapons. With the help of others, he rushed his brother to hospital in a police vehicle, where he later died. Several others were also injured, though they are now out of danger.

Daulatpur Upazila Health and Family Planning Officer Touhidul Hasan said Shamim’s condition was extremely critical when he was brought in. He had been hacked. He died within five minutes of starting treatment due to excessive bleeding, he said.

Fazlur Rahman said his brother’s body is now at the morgue of Kushtia General Hospital and will be buried beside their father and grandmother after the autopsy.

During the conversation, Fazlur Rahman received a phone call. He was heard saying, “Even if no one arranges the funeral prayer, we brothers will do it ourselves. But we will bring the body home.”

Asked whether a case would be filed, he said, “We will decide after the funeral.”

Several local residents, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a 30-second video clip from a few years ago—allegedly showing pir Abdur Rahman, also known as Shamim, making derogatory remarks about the Holy Quran—spread on social media from Friday morning, sparking outrage among different groups.

In response, more than a hundred people gathered at Abed’s Ghat, about half a kilometre from the shrine, on Saturday morning. Later in the afternoon, they attacked the shrine and hacked and beat Shamim to death in the presence of police.

An 18-minute video circulating on social media shows a large procession of more than a hundred people chanting slogans as they marched towards the shrine. A section of the crowd entered two one-storey concrete buildings and a tin-shed structure, vandalising them and setting them on fire. According to eyewitnesses, five to seven people inside the shrine were injured during the attack, while others fled. Fire service personnel later brought the blaze under control.