Bangladesh Hindu minority in fear as attacks rise ahead of election

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Bangladesh’s Hindu minority is expressing deep fear as attacks rise and the country moves toward a national election on Feb. 12, with rights advocates warning that minorities may face increasing risk as political tensions sharpen. In a case that became a flashpoint, Dipu Chandra Das, a 27-year-old Hindu garment worker, was beaten to death by a mob after several Muslim colleagues accused him in December of making derogatory remarks about the Prophet Muhammad. His body was hung from a tree and set on fire, and footage of the killing circulated on phones in the days that followed.

Across Bangladesh, Hindus watched the recorded images with dread, and protests broke out in Dhaka and other cities as demonstrators demanded justice and greater protections. The interim government, led by Muhammad Yunus, ordered an investigation, and police said about a dozen people were arrested. When contacted by The Associated Press for a response, an official from Yunus’ press team declined to comment.

Human rights groups and Hindu leaders said the killing was not isolated, but part of a wider surge in attacks on the minority community. Ranjan Karmaker, a Dhaka-based Hindu human rights activist, said fear has become pervasive as the Muslim-majority country approaches the election. “No one feels safe anymore,” Karmaker said. “Everyone is terrified.”

Karmaker and other rights advocates pointed to what they describe as a culture of impunity, arguing that repeated near-weekly incidents and weak accountability are deepening anxiety in Hindu communities. He said: “The individuals involved in this violence are not being brought under the law, nor are they being held accountable through the justice system. It creates the impression that the violence will continue.”

Hindus make up a small minority in Bangladesh—about 13.1 million people, or roughly 8% of the country’s population of about 170 million—while Muslims make up about 91%. The Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council, an umbrella group representing minority communities, said it documented more than 2,000 incidents of communal violence since the ouster of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in a mass uprising in August 2024. The group recorded at least 61 killings, 28 instances of violence against women—including rape and gang rape—and 95 attacks on places of worship involving vandalism, looting and arson.

The unity council also accused the Yunus-led administration of routinely dismissing or downplaying reports of such violence. An administration headed by Yunus has denied that it failed to ensure adequate protection for minority communities and has insisted that most incidents are not driven by religious hostility. The AP report also noted that previous elections in Bangladesh have seen increases in violence, with religious minorities often bearing the brunt, and that many Hindus fear the worst because Hasina’s Awami League party is barred from contesting elections and Hasina has been living in exile in India.

The surge in attacks, rights groups said, has unfolded alongside what they describe as the reemergence of Islamists and rising polarization. The report said Jamaat-e-Islami, Bangladesh’s largest Islamist party, and its student wing have moved to reclaim influence in the election period after years on the political sidelines involving bans, arrests and sustained crackdowns under Hasina. The party’s broader Islamist alliance includes 11 parties, including the student-led National Citizen Party, or NCP, whose leaders played a central role in the 2024 uprising.

As concerns grow about what Jamaat-e-Islami’s return could mean for religious minorities, the group has sought to recast its public image, including by organizing rallies featuring Hindu participants and nominating a Hindu community leader as a candidate. Meanwhile, the NCP pledged to support citizens facing religious discrimination and said that, if elected, it would establish a dedicated unit within the Human Rights Commission to protect minority rights. Political analyst Altaf Parvez said those steps were largely symbolic and argued that other parties—including the Bangladesh Nationalist Party—have also failed minorities by nominating only a handful of candidates.

Parvez said a systematic pattern of attacks was taking place in rural areas to inject fear among minorities before the vote. “It will impact the participation of the voters from the minority communities in the next elections too,” he said, describing the violence as a pressure campaign aimed at discouraging minority engagement.

The AP report said tensions around attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh have also inflamed relations with neighboring India, prompting protests by Hindu nationalist groups and criticism from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. India’s Foreign Ministry accused Bangladesh of downplaying a “disturbing pattern of recurring attacks” on Hindus and said the violence was wrongly blamed on personal or political disputes. Bangladesh, in turn, described India’s criticism as “systematic attempts” to stoke anti-Bangladesh sentiments.

The dispute has spilled into diplomacy and sporting events, with each side accusing the other of failing to protect diplomatic missions and suspending some visa services. The report said Indian cricket officials barred a Bangladeshi player from the Indian Premier League, after which Bangladesh boycotted the current World Cup in India. Sreeradha Datta, a Bangladesh expert at India’s Jindal School of International Affairs, said India’s concerns were “legitimate,” adding that “Hindus in Bangladesh are a very vulnerable group that can’t defend themselves,” and that Yunus’ administration was “deliberately looking the other way.”

For those directly affected by the violence, the consequences have been personal. After word of Das’ killing reached his home village in Bangladesh’s Mymensingh district, relatives and neighbors said they watched images of his killing on phones. “When people say they saw it on their phones, my chest feels like it is going to burst,” his father said. Das was described by relatives as a quiet, well-behaved man and as the sole breadwinner for his family, leaving his wife and mother facing an uncertain future.

His mother, Shefali Rani Das, said the family is seeking justice and demanded accountability for the killing. “They beat him, hung him from a tree, and burned him. I demand justice,” she said.