Chaos erupted outside the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi on Tuesday as hundreds of protesters affiliated with right-wing extremist groups Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal clashed with the police. The demonstrators were protesting the lynching of a Hindu man in Bangladesh.
Carrying saffron flags and shouting slogans, the protesters broke through multiple barricades despite a heavy police presence. The high security area witnessed a beefed-up police presence in the morning ahead of the protest announced by VHP.
Authorities had deployed additional forces and set up three layers of security to prevent a breach.
An officer said a 15,000-strong police force was deployed ahead of the demonstration. He said police managed to hold the protesters about 800 metres from the high commission.
DTC buses were parked as an obstacle to thwart the protesters' bid to reach the high commission.
Crowds waved banners and placards condemning the Bangladesh government, with one placard reading, “Hindu rakt ki ek ek boond ka hisaab chahiye” (“Each drop of Hindu blood must be accounted for”).
The protests follow the death of 25-year-old Dipu Chandra Das, a garment factory worker, who was lynched on December 18 in Baluka, Mymensingh.
According to the police, Das was first beaten up by a mob outside the factory and then hanged from a tree. The crowd allegedly left the body of the deceased by the Dhaka-Mymensingh Highway and later set it on fire.
"A Hindu man was brutally assaulted and killed. We request our government to take strict action against those who are behind the killing. We also demand that the Bangladesh police take strict action against those who are behind the killing," a protester said.