New Delhi, Dec. 24 -- Bangladesh was founded on linguistic nationalism, cultural pluralism, and resistance to religious absolutism. Yet in recent days, that founding promise has been violently betrayed. The brutal lynching and burning of a young Hindu garment worker, Dipu Chandra Das, has sent shockwaves across the country and beyond, raising urgent questions about minority safety, mob radicalization, and the state's diminishing authority in the face of Islamist extremism.

On the night of December 18, along the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway in Bhaluka, Mymensingh, Dipu Chandra Das, 27, was dragged out of police custody by an Islamist mob, beaten to death, tied to a tree, and set on fire. Video footage of the incident - now viral - shows extr...