50-year-old former school employee Shahidunnabi Jewel, said to be victim to mental illness, was beaten to death and subsequently set aflame by a mob following rumors that he had mishandled the Qur'an while browsing the bookshelf at a mosque.
In October 2020, Shahidunnabi Jewel and his friend, Sultan Jubaer Abbas, arrived at a mosque in the Lalmonirhat district of Bangladesh. Further background details are scarce, but the men told the mosque’s imam that they were concerned that “hardline fighters” may have been using the mosque to store weapons. In searching for these weapons, they apparently handled holy books in ways the imam considered disrespectful. At some point, Shahidunnabi also apparently accidentally stepped on a Qur’an.
This led to an altercation between the two men and the people in the area; reportedly, five or six men beat them before police arrived and detained them.
“Agitated locals stormed the UP office and dragged one of the men outside before lynching him in front of the office. They then took the body to the Lalmonirhat-Burimari National Highway and burned it with firewood and petrol.” - police officer involved with the case
That night, however, a larger mob came and were able to wrest Shahidunnabi from police custody. One police officer gave the figure of 5,000 or 6,000 people, though this may be an exaggeration. Regardless, Shahidunnabi was taken, brutally beaten, murdered and set aflame. His body burned on a highway as the crowd surrounded him and watched.
Shahidunnabi was 50 years old when he died. He had previously worked as a librarian and is said to have suffered from an undisclosed mental condition. He left behind two children.
Blasphemy law in Bangladesh allows the state to arrest, trial and imprison any person who has intention of hurting "religious sentiments." While the state does not have any law against apostasy, vigilantism or non-state groups prosecute apostates on their own. Vigilante violence has been an especially acute issue, most notably in the mid-2010s when a string of secularist and atheist bloggers suffered murder and attempted murder at the hands of Islamist extremists.