Death by mob
A Netra News analysis of incidents flagged and catalogued by the human rights organisation Ain O Salish Kendra found that typical cases of sudden mob assaults — usually targeting people accused of theft or other minor crime — roughly tripled in 2025 compared with 2023.
In the early hours of a night in March 2025, Riad Hossain was driving for Uber when a car slammed into his from behind. It was about 2am, and the streets were largely empty. As he slowed to collect a passenger, the impact jolted his vehicle forward.
Angry and shaken, Hossain got out and blocked the other car, demanding compensation for damage to his new vehicle. But in the darkness, the occupants of the private car saw something else: a man standing in the road, obstructing their path. They began shouting that he was a street robber.
The accusation travelled fast. Passers-by and nearby residents gathered, drawn by the commotion. The crowd turned hostile, beating Hossain repeatedly. An army patrol intervened and took him away, local reports said, though family members later alleged that soldiers also assaulted him. He was taken to hospital, where he died shortly afterwards.
Details of Hossain’s death were reported in local news accounts. Such killings, driven by suspicion and collective fury, are tragically familiar in Bangladesh. But in 2025, they rose to levels unseen in recent years.
A Netra News analysis of incidents flagged and catalogued by the human rights organisation Ain O Salish Kendra found that typical cases of sudden mob assaults — usually targeting people accused of theft or other minor crime — roughly tripled in 2025 compared with 2023.
At the same time, killings that bore signs of planning and coordination, but were publicly framed as spontaneous “mob violence”, also rose sharply, from four cases in 2023 to 34 in 2025.
Together, the findings point to a country still grappling with a weakened security environment that first became visible after the August 2024 uprising, when mass protests overwhelmed security forces and toppled the government. Since then, both vigilante justice — citizens taking the law into their own hands — and the exploitation of mob violence as a cover for targeted killings have increased dramatically.
“The government’s approach to handling mob violence has been shaped largely by political considerations,” said Mirza M. Hassan, a governance expert at the BRAC Institute of Governance and Development, a leading think tank in Dhaka. “In most cases, questions of justice and equity have not been the primary concern.”
| Date | Name | Age | Accusation of | Cause of Death | |
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Bangladesh, like much of South Asia, has a long history of mob attacks on crime suspects. People accused of theft, robbery or, at times, rumoured child abductors are often beaten by spontaneous crowds. Investigating such deaths is notoriously difficult, experts said, because responsibility becomes diffuse when dozens of strangers are involved. That ambiguity has created an opening now: planned killings can be staged to look like mob attacks, blurring motives and frustrating police inquiries.
“People have realised that if they can create a mob, their personal motives disappear from view,” Hassan said. “It also reduces their own risk because the police cannot arrest everyone. That is why personal grudges and disputes are increasingly carried out under the cover of mob violence.”
In these cases, the violence often lacks the hallmarks of spontaneity. Families, neighbours and even police officials describe circumstances suggesting premeditation and organised perpetrators rather than a sudden outburst of public anger. Victims and attackers know each other in some cases, with disputes over land, money or personal grievances preceding the killing.
In Munshiganj, for instance, the body of 42-year-old Sana Majhi was found at around 2am on May 1st 2025. According to his brother, Habu Majhi, Sana had been lured out earlier that evening by another man. At the location, a group suddenly began shouting “dacoit, dacoit” — robber — through a megaphone, drawing the attention of passers-by. A crowd gathered and joined in the assault, beating him to death.
District-Level Pattern
Mob-related killings per district in 2025. Darker districts indicate higher counts.
When his body was found, a shotgun and spent cartridges lay beside it, suggesting he had been armed. His family insists the items were planted. Habu, his brother, told local reporters that they suspect a rival family, with whom they have had a long-running land dispute, orchestrated the killing. Saiful Alam, the local police chief, said his preliminary investigation supported that possibility.
Investigations can be particularly difficult, police officials say, when there is no CCTV footage and the attackers appear to be strangers with no obvious links to the victim and no clear prior motive, a challenge that staged mob attacks are designed to exploit.
“By making a killing look like mob violence, perpetrators may think the police will see it as an emotional act rather than a premeditated crime, and that this gives them a better chance of getting away with it,” said A.H.M. Sahadat Hossaine, a Bangladesh Police spokesperson, in a phone interview. “It can also make investigations more difficult.”
Deaths comparison
In 2023, the Netra News analysis of the Ain O Salish Kendra data determined 38 deaths it classified as potential mob violence. As many as 34 of those appeared to result from genuinely spontaneous attacks, most involving accusations of petty theft or street robbery, while four showed signs of planning.
By 2025, the number of apparently spontaneous mob killings had risen to 104. Once again, the overwhelming majority followed allegations that victims were thieves, robbers or extortionists. In a smaller number of cases, the accusations were more serious, including rape or murder, before the victims were attacked.
Despite the scale of the violence, the analysis suggests that relatively few cases — whether spontaneous or staged — were driven primarily by religious or political motives. In 2023, four of the 38 victims were non-Muslims. In 2025, five of the 138 victims were Hindu; in at least one of those cases, the accused was also Hindu. One killing followed allegations that the victim had made derogatory remarks about Islam.
Methodology and Notes
Netra News analysed 228 deaths in 2023 and 2025 that Ain O Salish Kendra (ASK) classified as potential mob violence. The organisation’s database is based on newspaper reports and does not involve independent investigation of each case. Of the 228 deaths, 176 appeared to involve either spontaneous mob violence or criminal homicides later described as such, likely to obscure responsibility. We assessed the likely circumstances of a killing when at least two of the following disputed the claim that it was a spontaneous mob attack: the victim’s family members, neighbours, local community members or law enforcement agencies. We did not conduct independent investigations into individual cases.
The ASK data contained missing values. In 2023, for example, the organisation reported 51 likely cases of mob violence, but it was able to provide details for 40 cases it documented. In 2025, the number was 189 in place of 198.
The analysis excludes 2024, a year marked by extraordinary political upheaval and unusually high casualties, which set it apart from more typical patterns of violence.
Mizanur Rahman, a staff reporter, gathered and analysed the data and reported the story. Subinoy Mustofi Eron designed the layout of the webpage.