Hindu woman brutally murdered in Satkhira amidst ongoing persecution of Hindu minorities in Bangladesh

Case ID : 30a80d3 | Location : Satkhira District, Bangladesh | Date of Incident : Sat, 25 April, 2026

Case ID : 30a80d3

Satkhira District, Bangladesh

25 April, 2026

Hindu woman brutally murdered in Satkhira amidst ongoing persecution of Hindu minorities in Bangladesh

Attack resulting in death

Attacked for Hindu identity

Case Summary

In Bangladesh’s Satkhira, a 50‑year‑old Hindu woman named Bithika Sadhu was brutally murdered by a group of unidentified assailants. The victim’s face was badly crushed, and her head bore severe injuries. According to media reports, the deceased, Bithika Sadhu (50), was the wife of Biswanath Sadhu of Thanaghata’s Boubazar area, who had long been running a grocery shop in the same locality. As per the victim's family and local sources, Bithika was supposed to return home after closing the shop at around 10 pm on 26 April 2026, as usual. When she did not come back at the expected time, her family members started looking for her in the surrounding area. At 12.30 am, her body was spotted lying in a pond located about 100 yards from her house. Family members informed the police, who then went to the spot and recovered the body. Family members also stated that the area is plagued by drug addicts. The gold chain and earrings around her neck were missing, and it was believed that she may have been killed for the purpose of robbery. Relatives stated that the attackers crushed her face and head with a heavy object before dumping her body in the pond. Satkhira Sadar Police Station Officer‑in‑Charge (OC) Masudur Rahman stated that, upon receiving the information, the police visited the scene, recovered the body, and sent it to Satkhira Sadar Hospital for an autopsy. He added that an investigation was already underway to identify those involved in the incident and unravel the full circumstances behind the killing. This incident is part of an ongoing pattern of violence against Hindus in Bangladesh, where the community has repeatedly faced persecution and disruptions to their religious festivals and gatherings. Such attacks on Hindu minorities have become increasingly frequent and intensified since August 2024. This escalation of violence against Hindus in Bangladesh has unfolded in three distinct phases: first, following the ouster of Sheikh Hasina’s government in August 2024; second, after the death of Sharif Osman Bin Hadi in December 2025; and third, in the immediate aftermath of the 13th National Parliamentary Election 2026. Following the ouster of Sheikh Hasina, multiple reports documented attacks on Hindu homes, temples, and religious institutions, alongside intimidation campaigns, arson, and mob assaults targeting minority neighbourhoods. The Hinduphobia tracker has recorded 336 such incidents against the Hindu minority, underscoring the scale and persistence of anti-Hindu violence during this period. A further escalation occurred following the death of Sharif Osman Bin Hadi, a Muslim political activist and student leader known for his anti-Hindu and anti-India rhetoric. Hadi had been involved in political unrest after the fall of the Hasina government and was killed in Dhaka on 18 December 2025 during clashes. In the aftermath of his death, Hindu communities were blamed and subsequently targeted in retaliatory violence. Hindu homes were selectively set ablaze in multiple localities, forcing families to flee and leaving many displaced. The attacks appeared patterned rather than sporadic, with Muslim mobs focusing on Hindu neighbourhoods, properties, and religious symbols. Among the victims was Dipu Chandra Das, who was lynched to death and his body was set ablaze by a Muslim mob over false blasphemy allegations. The Hinduphobia tracker documented 51 incidents of anti-Hindu violence in the period following Hadi’s death alone. Such incidents underscore the vulnerability of the Hindu minority amid rising communal hostility and the weaponisation of religious accusations. Reports further indicated that posters and written materials calling for the extermination of Hindus were displayed in public spaces, signalling an alarming normalisation of genocidal rhetoric. When combined with acts of arson, vandalism, assault, and targeted intimidation, these developments suggest a coordinated environment of hostility aimed at terrorising the Hindu community and reinforcing majoritarian dominance. The third phase of violence was unleashed after the 13th National Parliamentary Election 2026. Within days of the announcement of results, Hindu families in districts such as Noakhali, Rangpur, Nilphamari, Sylhet, Thakurgaon, and Dinajpur reported coordinated attacks involving arson, looting, assault, and vandalism of temples and homes. In several instances, Hindu homes were selectively targeted, looted, and families were threatened with displacement.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case is being added to the Hinduphobia Tracker under the primary category- Attack resulting in death. The subcategory selected is- 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, cases where the attack led to the death of the Hindu victim/s would be documented. In this case, a 50‑year‑old Hindu woman named Bithika Sadhu was brutally murdered by a group of unidentified assailants in the Thanaghata Boubazar area of Satkhira, Bangladesh. Her face was badly crushed, and her head bore severe injuries. In the prevailing environment of anti‑Hindu hostility in Bangladesh, this incident aligns with the wider pattern of violence affecting Hindus. While some may argue that the case details do not explicitly state a religious motive, the broader context of anti‑Hindu persecution in Bangladesh remains relevant for classification. During periods of sustained violence against Hindus based on religious identity, the Hinduphobia Tracker applies a contextual presumption that attacks on Hindu victims are likely faith‑targeted, even when the immediate report does not record a specific religious marker. In such periods, the normalisation of religious hostility and the dehumanisation of minorities can contribute to crimes against them without perpetrators openly stating a motive. For the purpose of documenting the 2024 to 2026 ethnic cleansing of Hindus in Bangladesh and the subsequent persecution after the political exile of Sheikh Hasina, the death of Sharif Osman Hadi, and the 13th National Parliamentary Election 2026, the Hinduphobia Tracker records such incidents as likely religiously motivated at the point of entry. If any case is later established through credible investigation or court findings to stem from motivations other than religious hostility, it will be revised or removed from the hate crime database. In this case, the brutality of the attack, beating the victim on the face and head, killing her, and dumping her body in a pond, along with the disappearance of jewellery, is consistent with the severity observed in other reported attacks on Hindu victims during this period and therefore supports the contextual classification of likely religious hostility, absent contrary evidence. The case is documented as likely involving faith targeting, given the victim’s identity as a Hindu woman from a minority community and the surrounding pattern of persecution, while remaining open to revision if new facts emerge. The killing of Bithika Sadhu must therefore be examined not in isolation but against this documented backdrop of repeated violent targeting of Hindu individuals across Bangladesh. The extreme violence deployed against her demonstrates how precarious the security of Hindu citizens has become. Her murder aligns with a continuing pattern in which Hindu individuals, including women and small‑scale traders from minority households, face lethal consequences in an environment where their religious identity is treated as a source of vulnerability. Given the broader environment of sustained anti‑Hindu persecution in Bangladesh, the case meets the threshold for inclusion in the Hinduphobia Tracker’s hate crime database.