Bangladeshi Hindus have been facing persecution in the Islamic country ever since 1947, and their woes have only increased in recent times with Islamism taking deep roots in the country. The interim government led by Mohammad Yunus, which is hand in glove with terrorists, has only made the situation of Bangladeshi Hindus even more pitiable and precarious.
Attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh are relentless and designed to cleanse the religious minority from the country gradually. According to a study by Prof. Abul Barakat of Dhaka University, no Hindus will be left in Bangladesh by 2050 due to systemic and institutionalized persecution. Temple desecration, land grabbing, mob attacks after false blasphemy charges, rape/forced conversion of women, and hate speech are tools used to intimidate and drive Bangladeshi Hindus out.
Recent instances of persecution of Bangladeshi Hindus
Here are 15 cases of brutal Hindu persecution since January 2025:
1) A 17-year-old Hindu girl was abducted from Moulvi Bazaar’s Kamalganj Upazila and gang-raped for three days by 4-5 Islamists, including Mustafa Miyan and Jaynal Miyan. If that wasn’t brutal enough, she was subsequently sold for 3,00,000 BDT to a trafficking racket. The family’s woes were yet to end as her father died of a heart attack after learning about his daughter’s fate.
2) Chattagram’s Pranta Talukdar was abducted and assaulted by an Allahu Akbar shouting mob for his Facebook post questioning the Tablighi Jamaat’s anti-Hindu activities.
3) Bangladeshi Hindu businessmen have been on the receiving end of Islamist hate. Several cases of abduction, assault, and murder of Hindu businessmen, in addition to extortion and vandalism of their business establishments, were reported from across the country.
4) Bangladeshi politicians demand their pound of flesh from the Hindu minorities. In Barguna, local B.N.P. (Bangladesh Nationalist Party)leader Abdul Salam and his goons tried to grab the land of the Sri Sri Radha Govinda Ji Mandir.
5) Social Media (SM) was used to incite a mob to attack and vandalise vegetarian restaurant Gopala’s Kitchen in Dhaka’s Malibaug.
6) Extremists shot dead student Arnab Kumar Sarka at the Tentultala intersection in Khulna city. He was drinking tea on his bike near a tea stall when a bullet was pumped into his head.
7) In several instances, the brutality knows no limits. 35-year-old Animesh Sarkar was found hanging from a tree in Satkhira District’s Langaldaria Village.
8) Islamists are known for vandalising Mandirs and murtis/pratimas of Hindu Devis-Devatas with alarming frequency. Saraswati Puja Mandaps were attacked in Satkhira and Pabna Districts. In Satkhira’s Shyamnagar Upazila, the vandalists vandalised Maa Saraswati’s vigraha and threw garbage inside the Puja Mandap. Vandalisation of Saraswati Puja Mandaps was also reported from Chattagram and Rajshahi Districts.
9) Ola cab driver Sukumar’s mortal remains were found with his throat slit in Natore District’s Chamtia Village.
10) Islamists are known for forcibly grabbing lands belonging to Bangladeshi Hindus. The cemetery of the local Hindu community was forcibly taken over by Islamists in Hazari Haat of Nilphamari District’s Saidpur Upazila.
11) Lalmonirhat Government College Professor Deb Dulal Guha was assaulted by his students for expressing his concerns about the worsening situation in Bangladesh on social media. Eggs were hurled at them. He was rescued by police and DB officials.
12) Another trick used to harass Bangladeshi Hindus is cooking up blasphemy charges. Many Bangladeshi Hindus have been jailed, or worse, lynched by Islamists on fake blasphemy charges. In one such instance, 20-year-old Ananta Kumar Dhar was arrested on dubious charges of blasphemy in Narsingdi’s Palash.
13) A Harinam Sankirtan event in Pabna’s Devidwar Upazila was attacked by Islamists. They hurled bricks at the Hindu devotees attending the event, injuring several devotees, including women.
14) Many times, Bangladeshi Hindus have had to grapple with the loss of their livelihood due to the Islamist atrocities. In Netrakona District’s Bori Village, Ripan Sarkar’s cowshed was burnt down, burning four of his cows to death. In Noakhali’s Hatiya Upazila, Islamists burnt the fishing boat of a poor Hindu family, taking away their only means of livelihood.
15) The houses of eight Hindu families were burned down, leaving them with nothing. This incident occurred in Fokdoi Village of Panchagarh District’s Boda Upazila.
Putting things in perspective
We have merely provided a snapshot of the horrors faced by Bangladeshi Hindus. In many cases, the authorities and politicians are themselves complicit, or worse, perpetrators of anti-Hindu crimes. Like their Pakistani counterparts, Bangladeshi Hindus are being ethnically cleansed in the Islamic nation.
The Islamist lobby in Bangladesh acts as a pressure group, and every single political party has accepted the majority of their demands. The success of the so-called “ student protests against discrimination” was used as an excuse to label Hindus as “Agents of Awami League” to justify large-scale attacks on their lives and livelihood.
Journalists and researchers have concluded that there is a sharp increase in violence and other atrocities like rape, extracting Jaziya, public humiliation, forced conversion, arrest and torture under fabricated charges, dismissal from Government jobs and blacklisting from employment and business opportunities against the remaining 1.3 crore indigenous Hindus, after the fall of the Awami League Government on 5 August 2024.
The road ahead doesn’t look very pleasant with Mohammad Yunus heading the government, Pakistan collaborating with it, and terrorist groups receiving full government support. There is not much one can expect from Islamists, be it in Pakistan or Bangladesh. However, the persecuted minority Bangladeshi Hindus are having to grapple with the deafening silence of so-called human rights activists, too. Will the world speak up or mutely watch Hindus being wiped out from Bangladesh and Pakistan, like they have been from Afghanistan?
(Read the full report here)
