Described by human rights defenders as one of the worst episodes of targeted communal violence in Bangladesh since 1971, the Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council has released an explosive report documenting 2,442 incidents of violence against minority communities primarily Hindus over a span of just 330 days following the fall of the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government on August 5, 2024.
The report, unveiled on July 10 at the National Press Club in Dhaka, has sent shockwaves through minority quarters and international observers alike. It paints a grim picture of a nation spiraling into lawlessness, where minority persecution has become systematic, unchecked, and in many instances, state-enabled.
The power vacuum created by the ousting of Sheikh Hasina’s government opened the floodgates for communal elements and radical Islamist forces to assert dominance under the interim administration led by Mohammad Yunus. While the political elite presented the regime change as a “transition to neutrality and reform,” ground reports tell a very different story.
The Unity Council’s data reveals that the majority of the attacks over 1,000 occurred between August 4 and August 20, 2024, suggesting that this was not a spontaneous breakdown of law and order, but rather a deliberately orchestrated campaign to instill fear and drive minorities out of their homes, professions, and even the nation.
“What we have witnessed is a systematic purge of Bangladesh’s minorities particularly Hindus,” said Narmal Rosario, a senior member of the Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council. “The silence of the interim government has only emboldened the perpetrators.”
The catalogue of horrors is gut-wrenching:
- Murder of minority men and women, often in front of family members to send a chilling message.
- Gang rapes of Hindu and Christian girls, with many survivors refusing to speak out due to threats and stigma.
- Arson attacks on temples and churches, desecration of murtis and religious icons.
- Destruction and looting of Hindu-owned shops, homes, and farms.
- Mass arrests of minority individuals on fabricated charges of “hurting religious sentiments.”
- Social boycotts, public humiliation, and expulsion of minority staff and workers from local institutions.
The report includes testimonies from victims who allege that police either stood by or actively participated in the attacks. “My father was dragged out and killed. The attackers had our names and home mapped out beforehand. They weren’t outsiders they were our neighbours,” said a 17-year-old Hindu girl from Barisal district, whose family has now fled to Tripura in India.
Human rights watchers say the fall of Sheikh Hasina whose government, had kept radical elements in check was exploited by Islamist political networks, including Jamaat-e-Islami sympathisers, to reassert control over social and administrative institutions.
“The removal of Hasina was not just a political change, it was the reopening of ideological war against minorities that was only held back under her rule,” said a Dhaka-based political analyst who requested anonymity due to safety concerns.
Evidence suggests that Islamist clerics and madrasa leaders used mosque loudspeakers and WhatsApp groups to instigate mobs during the August attacks. In districts like Noakhali, Chattogram, and Khulna, mobs were seen moving with impunity, chanting slogans demanding the removal of “murti worshippers” from “Muslim soil.”
Despite the mountain of evidence presented by the Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council and similar watchdogs, the interim regime led by Mohammad Yunus has continued to deny the violence, branding the allegations as “politically motivated” and accusing the Unity Council of “misleading the public.”
This, despite the fact that most victims have documented injuries, FIRs, video evidence, and eyewitness testimonies that corroborate the claims. In a particularly damning case, video footage showed police dragging a Hindu priest from a temple in Comilla while rioters vandalised the sanctum sanctorum behind him.
“The government is not merely ignoring these crimes. Its silence is an act of complicity,” said Nimchandra Bhoumik, a prominent minority rights leader. “This is not democracy. This is demographic engineering,” added Manindra Kumar Nath, acting general secretary of the Council.
As per the 2022 Census, Hindus constitute 7.95 per cent of Bangladesh’s population—down from over 22% in 1951. Christians and Buddhists represent 0.30 per cent and 0.61 per cent respectively. The steady decline of minority numbers is often attributed to forced conversions, migration due to threats, property grabs under the Vested Property Act, and targeted violence like what has unfolded over the past year.
At the current rate, demographers fear Bangladesh could become near-homogenous within a generation, making it one of the most rapidly de-pluralising nations in the region.
So far, international media coverage has been minimal, and human rights groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have issued only muted statements. Some observers attribute this silence to the geopolitical sensitivities in South Asia, where Western nations are reluctant to antagonise Bangladesh’s government amidst the Indo-Pacific power contest.
India, despite its close cultural ties with Bangladesh’s Hindus and Buddhists, has issued no formal diplomatic statement demanding justice or protection for minorities. Analysts say this silence could come at a cost. “New Delhi must act, not only to protect vulnerable Hindus across the border, but to safeguard regional pluralism,” said a senior policy expert from Delhi University.
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