section_path: Minorities
section_name: Minorities
paragraph_text: Minorities
  
  An Ahmadiya mosque at Dhaka's Madartek locality was vandalized. Ahmadiyas were attacked in Choraikhola in Nilphamari District. A mob destroyed 80 homes and a mosque of the Ahamadiya community in Ahmednagar, Panchagarh District. Ahmadiya Muslim community were attacked in Bamrail. The house of a Kurukh family, was set on fire in Dhawakandar village of Gomastapur upazila of Chapainawabganj. The miscreants vandalized their homesteads, set fire and cut down their mango orchards and threatened to grab the land. At least a hundred houses of Chakmas at Dighinala Upazila of Khagracchari were torched by Bengali Muslim settlers. Due to this incident, the Buddhist community decided not to publicly observe the Kaṭhina festival that year. Christians were targeted & driven out of villages by mobs, who then attacked & looted their properties & churches in Dhamoirhat Upazila & a church in Dhaka was set on fire. Houses of Santhal Christian converts in Dinajpur district were similarly plundered alongside a church in Narayanganj District. In Khulna, the offices of Caritas Bangladesh was vandalised by local Muslims. Reports of Christian converts, especially those from Bengali Muslim families being killed & violently intimidated by armed mobs throughout the countryside have also appeared. It must also be noted that there was already a simmering discontent against Christians in the country caused by Hasina alleging tribal converts in Chittagong Hill Tracts planning to secede from the country with the aim to create a Christian state a few days before her resignation. In November 2024, St. Gregory's High School and College, a Catholic educational institution in Dhaka was vandalised by an enraged Muslim mob. On Christmas Eve 2024, houses of 17 Tripuri Christian converts were ransacked & burnt down at Lama Upazila of Bandarban District in Chittagong Hill Tracts by Bengali Muslim vandals.
  
  Hindus faced a large number of attacks, arising out of alienation of Hindus by all other major parties, all of which had a history of inciting communal riots against them (in 1990 by the Jatiya Party, in 2001 & 2013 by the BNP & its support to a similar nationwide riots by the Jamaat-e-Islami in 2014). However, nationwide anti-Hindu riots in 2021 were said to have been orchestrated by the Chhatra League. During the protests, Islamist organisations incited anti-Hindu rhetoric, citing Indian involvement in repressing the protests. The OHCHR report described the violence against Hindus to be motivated by "religious & ethnic discrimination, revenge against Awami League supporters, local communal disputes over land & interpersonal issues."
  
  A Hindu Idol at Dhaka College hostel was destroyed. The house of the President of Mohanpur Upazila Puja Udyapan Parishad Suranjit Sarkar was vandalized following which he fled to India. A house of a Hindu shopkeeper was vandalized in Hatra village. A Hindu councillor, Kajal Roy, from Rangpur was killed in the violent protest. On 5 August, a Hindu temple in Shariatpur town was looted and vandalized. Local Hindu families were rescued by Bangladesh Army.
  
  On August 5, 2024, the house of renowned Bangladeshi folk musician Rahul Ananda was vandalized, looted, and set ablaze by a violent mob in Dhaka's Dhanmondi area. The mob also looted or destroyed over 3,000 musical instruments, and musician Rahul Ananda had to flee with his family to save themselves. On 6 August, retired school teacher Mrinal Kanti Chatterjee was killed while his wife and daughter were injured at their home in Bagerhat Sadar Upazila.
  
  According to Prothom Alo, 1,068 houses and business establishments of minorities are attacked from 5 to 20 August. Outside of that, 22 houses of worship came under attack. The Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council reported that from August 4 to August 20, a total of 2,010 incidents (including 69 temples) of communal violence took place across the country within this 16-day period. Among the incidents, 157 families had their homes ransacked, looted, and set on fire, with their businesses also being destroyed.
  
  In October 2024, despite heavy security & deployment of armed personnel, scattered incidents of idol desecration & violent intimidation of Hindus occurred in various parts of the country during Durga Puja festivities in an attempt to jeopardize the observance of the most important Hindu festival in the country.
  
  A new wave of anti-Hindu violence spread throughout the country by the end of 2024, after arrested ISKCON leader Chinmoy Krishna Das 's supporters killed advocate Saiful Islam Alif. Hefazat-e-Islam demanded a ban on ISKCON.
  
  After the visit of India's foreign secretary on 9 December 2024, the interim Bangladeshi government stated that it had arrested 77 people in connection to 88 cases registered for violence against Hindus. Indian Minister of External Affairs (MoS), Kirti Vardhan Singh stated in the Lok Sabha that between 26 November 2024 & 25 January 2025, 76 incidents of anti-Hindu violence have taken place. Since Hasina's resignation, a false report of 23 Hindus were killed & 152 Hindu temples had been desecrated.
  
  On 20 February 2025, a passenger bus travelling from Dhaka to Rajshahi was attacked by highwaymen at the intersection of Gazipur district & Tangail district. Some reports stated that a 20 year old Hindu woman was raped by the goons on the spot, while others state that she was only sexually assaulted by the robbers attempting to snatch her jewellery.
  
  On the night of 18 April 2025, Bhabesh Chandra Roy, a local Hindu community leader was abducted by unidentified assailants from his home at his native village at Birganj Upazila in Dinajpur district.