Mob of 35 breaks into Hindu woman's house in Bangladesh, takes turn to rape her

Case ID : 0b67631 | Location : Satkhira District, Bangladesh | Date of Incident : Sun, 4 August, 2024

Case ID : 0b67631

Satkhira District, Bangladesh

4 August, 2024

Mob of 35 breaks into Hindu woman's house in Bangladesh, takes turn to rape her

Attack not resulting in death

Attacked for Hindu identity

Case Summary

A 35-year-old Hindu woman was gang-raped in Tala Upazila in the Satkhira district of Bangladesh after the ouster of Sheikh Hasina as the Prime Minister of the country. The victim, a housewife by occupation, narrated that a mob of 30-35 men broke into her house at 7 pm on August 5, 2024, and carried out vandalism. The perpetrators, armed with sharp weapons, damaged doors and windows, and stole a tin box which contained cash, gold and necessary documents. They took the woman behind a cowshed and took turns to rape her. The accused could not be identified since they were masked. The victim's husband was undergoing treatment at a hospital in Khulna at the time of the incident. On learning about the rape, he left the area with his family and returned on August 13, on the ‘assurance’ of local Jamaat leaders Dr Kamal and Ebadul. The officer-in-charge of Tala police station, Mominul Islam, claimed that the police had not been informed about the rape case.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case is being added to the primary category 'attack not resulting in death' under the sub-category 'attacked for Hindu identity'. In several cases, Hindus are attacked merely for their Hindu identity without any perceived provocation. A classic example of this category of religiously motivated hate crime is a murder in 2016. 7 ISIS terrorists were convicted for shooting a school principal in Kanpur because they got ‘triggered’ seeing the Kalava on his wrist and tilak that he had put. In this, the Hindu victim had offered no provocation except for his Hindu religious identity. The motivation for the murder was purely religious, driven by religious supremacy. Such cases where Hindus are targeted merely for their religious identity would be documented as a hate crime under this category. When there is an ongoing ethnic cleansing based on religious identity, every crime in and of itself is assumed to be motivated by the same religious animosity even if there is a lack of specific religious marker in the immediate crime. During an ongoing ethnic cleansing, the dehumanisation of a people based on their religious identity and the normalisation of religious hostility drives the crimes committed against them even when there is a lack of stated religious motive. For the purpose of documenting the 2024 ethnic cleansing of Hindus in Bangladesh, the Hinduphobia Tracker is assuming religious motivation ab initio. If a case is specifically and beyond reasonable doubt proven to be driven by motivations other than religious hostility, it will post-facto be removed from the hate crime database.