A migrant labourer from West Bengal’s Murshidabad district was lynched in Odisha’s Sambalpur on Wednesday. Six persons have been arrested for the murder.

The co-workers and family members of the man, Jewel Sheikh, alleged that he was attacked on suspicion of being an undocumented immigrant from Bangladesh. However, the Odisha Police denied this and claimed that the victim and the persons accused in his lynching knew each other.

The assault took place in the Shantinagar area late Wednesday evening when Jewel Sheikh and other construction workers were returning from work. Two other workers, Akir Sheikh and Palash Sheikh, were also injured in the attack and were hospitalised in Sambalpur.

Samirul Islam, the head of the West Bengal Labour Welfare Board, said that Bengali-speaking migrant workers were once again being targeted in states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party. Read more.

A Hindutva mob vandalised Christmas decorations at a shopping mall in Chhattisgarh’s capital Raipur. This was among several attacks on Christians or disruptions to Christmas celebrations over the past week.

Videos of the incident in Raipur showed a mob armed with sticks barging into the Magneto Mall and destroying decorations a day ahead of Christmas. Hindutva groups had called for a state-wide strike on Wednesday to protest the allegedly illegal religious conversions in Chhattisgarh.

In Uttar Pradesh, members of Hindutva groups on Wednesday sat outside a church in Bareilly’s Cantonment area, reciting the Hanuman Chalisa and shouting “Jai Shri Ram”.

In Assam, members of the Bajrang Dal barged into a school in the Nalbari district, destroying Christmas decorations and smashing posters on the premises. Read more.

Tarique Rahman, the acting chairperson of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and son of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, returned to the country after 17 years in exile. He is a key contender to be the country’s next prime minister after the general elections in February.

Speaking at a rally after landing in Dhaka, he outlined his vision for the country and invoked the words of American civil rights activist Martin Luther King.

Referring to the killing of Sharif Osman Bin Hadi on December 12, Rahman said that the student leader wanted the citizens of the country to regain their economic rights.

He also claimed that “agents of various dominant powers are still engaged in conspiracies” in the country.

While in exile in London, Rahman had been convicted on charges of money laundering and faced around 100 lawsuits. The convictions were overturned after the ouster of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in August 2024. Read on.

A key Maoist leader who carried a reward of Rs 1.1 crore on his head, Ganesh Uike, was killed in a gunfight with security forces in Odisha’s Kandhamal district. Three other suspected Maoists were also killed in the gunfight, which took place in a forest in the Chakapad police station area.

Uike was the chief of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) in Odisha. The identities of the three others who were killed are yet to be ascertained.

The Union government has vowed to end Maoism by March 31, 2026.

In the course of the Centre’s anti-Maoist offensive this year, key Maoist leaders like Uike and Madvi Hidma have been killed, while others like Vikas Nagpure alias Anant and Mallojula Venugopal Rao, alias Bhupathi have surrendered. Read more.

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