Between January and March 2025, there were as many as 142 instances of violent attacks against Hindus, rape of women and destruction of property across Bangladesh.
This boils down to almost five violent incidents per day, according to data compiled by a Dhaka-based minorities’ welfare organisation.
In March alone, 50 incidents of attacks, targeting minorities and indigenous communities occurred.
Of these, five were murders, eight were recorded in police files as rape, 13 temples were vandalised and four separate attacks on indigenous communities, one case of abduction, besides other instances of vandaliam and looting of businesses.
Islamist groups such as the Hizbut Tehrir, Jamaat-e-Islami and its students’ wing, the Islami Chhatra Shibir, besides sundry other fundamentalist groups have targeted Muslims who follow the sufi way of life.
Violence was unleashed against sufi followers and their places of worship across Bangladesh since August 2024.
“These instances of attacks against minorities were reported in Bangladesh’s media. There could be other cases that were not reported,” said a functionary of the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council (BHBCUC), adding that the Mohammad Yunus-led interim authority “is seeking to project these attacks as against Hindus who support or supported the Awami League. But why should any person, irrespective of his political allegiance be violently attacked?”
On his part, Yunus has so far refrained from speaking out against such violent targeting, with his spin doctors, such as his Press Adviser Shafiqul Alam, projecting the attacks against the minorities as acts of political vendetta against Awami League supporters.
Besides the ceaseless attacks against the minorities is the case of ISKCON monk and Bangladesh Sammilita Sanatani Jagran Jote spokesperson Chinmoy Krishna Das who was arrested in November 2024 amidst rising cases of attacks against Hindus and other minority communities. Appeals in court by Das’ lawyer for his bail have been dismissed.
Das’ next bail application is due to come up in the Bangladesh High Court, his lawyer Apurba Bhattacharya told Northeast News over phone.
“We expect the court to grant Das bail, but it is likely that the government will contest the bail application,” Bhattacharya said.
While it is not known whether Das’ case was specifically raised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his brief meeting with Yunus in Bangkok on April 4, the larger issue of attacks against Hindus and communal violence was taken up.
However, it was expected that the Yunus-led interim authority – none of the advisers have so far spoken up publicly on the attacks against Hindus – would not stand in the way of Das’ bail.
The ISKCON monk, charged under Sections 120B (conspiracy), 124 (assaulting the president and government), 153 (sedition), 109 (abetment) and 34 (common intent in criminal acts) of the Bangladesh Penal Code.
The scale and magnitude of majority-driven violence against Bangladesh’s minorities is huge: between August and December 2024, the BHBCUC recorded a “total” of 2,184 incidents of attacks against minorities.
This translates to over 18 cases per day in the span of 120 days. Of these cases, 32 were of murder and 133 instances of destruction of places of worship and 13 incidents of rape and sexual assault against Hindu women.
The BHBCUC said “detailed reports of these incidents were shared with the public through Press conferences on September 19, 2024, and January 30, 2025”, but there is no appreciable change of the ground situation as minority groups “continue live in terror and fear”.
