Catholic tribal leader dies after brutal attack in Bangladesh

A Bangladeshi Catholic politician who was attacked by a group of political opponents last month died on October 8. He was 48.
 
Subroto Sangma, a former union Parishad chairman, was attacked in northeastern Netrakona's Durgapur district under St. Joseph’s Church of Ranikhong in the Mymensingh diocese.
 
After being attacked last month by a group of opponents, Sangma was under treatment at Mymensingh Medical College and Hospital.
 
He was a former elected chairman of the Kullagora Union Council, a local government body in Durgapur in the northeastern Netrakona district.
 
Bangladesh's religious minority groups demanded justice for an ethnic Garo Catholic politician, who died ten days after he was brutally attacked by his political rivals.
 
Sangma was first attacked by a group of people in Rashimoni Bazar, near Durgapur, while a second assault took place on the bank of the Someshwari River in Shibgonj when about 20 men with an iron bar struck him while he was going to the hospital.
 
Nirmol Rozario, president of the Christian Association of Bangladesh, said: "We call for the arrest of those involved in this murder and we want justice."
 
"We express our deep condolences to the relatives of Sangma’s family. May God grant him eternal peace," he added.
 
In a press release, Obaidul Quader, secretary general of the Bangladesh Awami League and minister of road transport, condemned the murder and expressed his condolences.
 
According to the victim's cousin, Paritosh Bonoari, the attacks were carried out under the leadership of the union Parishad's incumbent chairman, Abdul Awal, the member-secretary of the Upazila unit BNP, and his younger brother, Shamim Ahmed.
 
The victim's sister, Keya Sangma, had filed a case with Durgapur Police Station a day after the attack, accusing the two and 13 others. The accused obtained anticipatory bail, said Mohammad Shibirul Islam, officer-in-charge of Durgapur Police Station.
 
"The accused will now be facing charges of murder," he added.
 
Sangma, a member of the ruling Awami League party, is the nephew of the late Promod Mankin, a prominent Garo Catholic politician and former state minister of social welfare.
 
The Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council, the country’s largest religious minority forum, issued a statement deploring the murder.
 
The group said in a statement, "We express deep concerns and fear over the brutal killing of Subrata Sangma. We demand immediate arrest and exemplary punishment for the culprits."
 
In Muslim-majority Bangladesh, Christians make up less than one percent, or an estimated 600,000 of the more than 165 million people, according to the 2022 survey.
 
A recent survey said that ethnic minorities have been undercounted in Bangladesh. Survey results in July showed that minorities number 1.65 million people, one percent of the national total of 165 million, with implications for some of the poorest people in the country.
 
About 4,500 Catholics live at St. Joseph’s Church in Ranikhong. - Nikhil Gomes