On August 5, 2024, hours after Bangladesh’s the then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina flew out to safety in India, a group of Juba Dal and Chhatra Dal (affiliate youth and students’ organisations of the BNP) men descended on a modest Hindu home at Mashan Kura in the Moghalhat neighbourhood of Lalmonirhat Sadar sub-district, some 10 kms north of Lalmonirhat town.
Hurling abuses in Bengali, they barged into the house of Ashwini Mondal. They then encircled him and beat him with their bare hands. When they saw Ashwini’s 24-year-old wife Arati, cowering in fear in another room, they left the bleeding man behind and attacked the woman.
They chased her in the small confines of the house before one of the men held her mouth shut. Her arms, with the customary white shakha and red pawla around her wrists, flailing, Arati tried to fight back. She was soon overpowered and dragged to a room where the Chhatra Dal/Juba Dal men took turns to rape her. The ordeal went on for two hours before the rapists left Moghalhat. Some villagers said that the assault on Arati stemmed from a long-standing land dispute.
Around 11 am the same day, at Dhyabdhyebi village of Kulaghat union in Lalmonirhat Sadar sub-district, another group of Chhatra Dal and Juba Dal men stormed the house of 55-year-old Mahitosh Burman, a widower. They did not assault Mahitosh but simply locked him up in another room before they targeted his 19-year-old unmarried daughter Muktarani.
The assailants bundled Muktarani and took her to Dhotogachh village, Mahendranagar union, where they sexually assaulted her before “throwing” her back at her Dhyabdhyebi village home. The gang-rape took place in a house in Stadiumpara, some 3 kms from Kulaghat. But after the Chhatra Dal and Juba Dal men assaulted her, they extorted BDT 40 lakh in cash from the victim’s uncle who gave away the money without even a murmur of protest, a few days after withdrawing the amount from a bank.
Neither Ashwini nor Mahitosh could muster sufficient courage to go over to the Lalmonirhat Sadar police station to lodge complaints or gang-rape and extortion.
In Lalmonirhat and other several other districts of Bangladesh, the fall of the Sheikh Hasina regime and the void created in general governance and law-and-order as a consequence of the students-led upheaval and the resulting chaos and violence, unleashed gangs owing allegiance primarily to the BNP and its front organisations who terrorised people, resorting to gratuitous violence against both Hindu and Muslim men perceived to have been supporters of the Awami League.
But Hindu women were targeted specifically for sexual violence. It has taken the three women and their immediate family members more than 17 months to break their silence and speak up at a time when an election and a referendum will be held simultaneously on February 12. With the Awami League out of the electoral race, following the ban imposed on it in October 2025 by the Mohammad Yunus-led interim regime, only two blocs, one BNP-led and the other Jamaat-e-Islami-led, are in the fray.
Records maintained by the Dhaka-based Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council (BHCUC) suggested unremitting and egregious violence against Hindus between August 4, 2024 and December 31, 2025, including 98 cases of murder, 41 cases of rape, 249 cases of attacks on temples, 51 cases of desecration of places of worship, 113 land-grab cases and 2,159 instances of attacks against indigenous people and other crimes such as abduction, physical assault, dismissal from employment and attacks on indigenous peoples.
Information culled from media reports by BHCUC shows that a 40-year-old Hindu woman was raped and “subjected to brutal abuse” at Kaliganj sub-district of Jhenaidah district on January 3, 2026.
BHCUC records show that in her complaint to the police, the woman alleged that “two local men assaulted her, tied her to a tree, forcibly cut her hair, and recorded videos that were later circulated on social media. The woman lost consciousness and was rescued by locals before being admitted to Jhenaidah Sadar Hospital.
“The victim later filed a case naming the two accused, stating that they had been harassing her for months after she rejected their advances. Police confirmed that an investigation has begun and assured strict legal action against those involved,” a BHCUC document reveals.
Scared for their lives and honour, besides a means to escape the social stigma, Arati and her husband Ashwini left Moghalhat a few days after the gang-rape incident which is common knowledge in the neighbourhood. They are said to have either moved to Lalmonirhat town or may have surreptitiously crossed the border into India’s West Bengal.
Informed sources in Lalmonirhat alleged that the main recipient of the money extorted from Mahitosh’s relative, Amritalal, a retired Lalmonirhat district land registrar, is Assadul Habib Dulu, a former minister and Rangpur district BNP President.
Dulu is also alleged to have formed an organisation called Teesta Bachao Andolan, based out of Lalmonirhat, in whose name he is said to have extorted large volumes of money from local businessmen, government officials and non-government organisations, and district-level Awami League leaders on the run.
When contacted over WhatsApp, Dulu said he had “no knowledge of such gang-rapes in Lalmonirhat Sadar area” and denied that Chhatra Dal or Juba Dal workers were behind such assaults. He was, however, quick to get off the call as he had “go out for electoral campaigning in the area”.
Jamaat-e-Islami candidate from Lalmonirhat-3 constituency, Abu Taher, an advocate, confirmed to Northeast News over a Whatsapp call that cases of “gang-rapes did occur on August 5, 2024, and that complaints were not filed by the victims as they were too frightened to act”. Besides, Taher said, “the victims’ families could not muster sufficient witnesses who could have testified in their favour”.
A Lalmonirhat BNP leader told Northeast News on the condition of anonymity that Chhatra Dal and Juba Dal workers and supporters “did resort to violence and arson across the district on and after August 5, 2024”. He said this was the reason that he stayed out of electoral campaigning this time.
A third alleged gang-rape of a Hindu woman case occurred on August 5 at Marichbari village (Bhelabari union), Aditmari sub-district of Lalmonirhat district. It was around dusk, when some men, allegedly owing allegiance to the Chhatra Dal and Juba Dal, calmly went over to Shibendra Nath’s house in Marichbari village.
Shibendra was beaten up before his 19-year-old daughter Rekharani was repeatedly sexually assaulted by the men in another room of the same house. Shibendra’s neighbours told Northeast News over phone that Rekharani had to “endure indecent proposals” by the same Chhatra Dal and Juba Dal men in the past.
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When contacted over phone, Lalmonirhat Superintendent of Police Mohammad Asaduzzaman said, “I took charge about two months ago and there are no records with me to suggest that such gang-rapes took place in the district. The police cannot act unless there is a formal complaint. However, do share the details and I shall try to inquire into such cases”.
Repeated calls over WhatsApp to Lalmonirhat Sadar Officer-in-Charge Omar Faruk went unanswered.
(The names of the victims and their immediate family members and relatives have been changed to protect their identity and ensure their security.)
