The largest minority body in Bangladesh, the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council (BHBCUC), has strongly denounced the escalating sectarian violence that targets minorities around the country.
The Council cited a number of recent instances in a statement issued on April 20, 2025, including the rape of a Marma girl in Kaukhali, Rangamati; the forced resignation of school principal Kantilal Acharya in Sitakunda, Chattogram; and the murder of Bhavesh Chandra Roy in Biral, Dinajpur.
Around fifty violent events, including murder, rape, attacks on temples, arrests for claimed religious defamation, attacks on indigenous people, and widespread looting of houses and businesses, took place statewide in March alone, according to the Council.
According to Council leaders Nim Chandra Bhowmik, Nirmal Rozario, Ushatan Talukder, and Acting General Secretary Monindra Kumar Nath, these incidents have increased minority populations’ dread and worry amid a time of turmoil and intercommunal strife. The Council has called for the offenders to be apprehended right away and subjected to severe legal penalties.
Particular attention has been paid to the murder of Bhavesh Chandra Roy, a prominent member of the Hindu community. After getting a mysterious phone call, Roy was allegedly kidnapped from his house, viciously beaten, rendered unconscious, and eventually died from his wounds.
This example and others support the Council’s assertion that since the August 2024 leadership shift, when widespread demonstrations forced Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to quit and an interim administration was established, the situation for minorities, particularly Hindus, has drastically worsened.
There has been an alarming rise in violence, according to independent assessments and BHBCUC statistics. 23 murders, 9 incidences of sexual abuse, 64 attacks on houses of worship, 38 violent assaults on residences and businesses, and 25 forced land and property seizures were among the more than 2,000 crimes against minorities that were reported between August and December 2024.
There were 92 attacks in the first two months of 2025 alone, including 25 attacks on temples, 3 rapes, 11 murders, and many other violent crimes. The Council has frequently noted that these events are part of a systemic pattern of persecution that is made worse by persistent discrimination and the underrepresentation of minorities in the post-Hasina temporary administration.
Minority leaders and rights organizations contend that the violence is primarily directed at religious and ethnic minorities and has engendered a climate of fear and insecurity for them, despite the government of Bangladesh’s insistence that the majority of incidents are political rather than communal in nature and its assertions that it has taken action against offenders.
The Council warns that the present course jeopardizes the foundation of Bangladesh’s pluralistic society and is calling for immediate legal action and greater protection for minority populations.
