Hindu man brutally attacked and stabbed by Muslim man over trivial dispute in Bangladesh amidst ongoing persecution of Hindus

Case ID : 30a87ae | Location : Comilla District, Bangladesh | Date of Incident : Mon, 18 May, 2026

Case ID : 30a87ae

Comilla District, Bangladesh

18 May, 2026

Hindu man brutally attacked and stabbed by Muslim man over trivial dispute in Bangladesh amidst ongoing persecution of Hindus

Attack not resulting in death

Attacked for Hindu identity

Case Summary

In Daudkandi Upazila of Cumilla District, Bangladesh, a Hindu businessman named Tonoy Ghosh was brutally attacked and stabbed by a Muslim man named Sahin Alam Babu over a trivial dispute. According to reports, the incident occurred in the Mosque Market area under Daudkandi Model Police Station. The attack occurred after an argument broke out between Tonoy Ghosh and a Muslim businessman identified as Sahin Alam Babu over a minor issue at the market. During the altercation, Sahin Alam Babu became violent and brutally attacked Tonoy Ghosh with a sharp knife, leaving him critically injured. Local traders and residents rushed to the scene, rescued the injured Hindu businessman, and sent him to a hospital in Dhaka for emergency treatment, where he remained under medical care. Following the stabbing, enraged local residents and fellow businessmen apprehended the accused attacker at the spot and handed him over to Daudkandi police. Police subsequently took Sahin Alam Babu into custody and stated that legal proceedings regarding the attack were underway. The incident triggered concern among local residents over the violent nature of the assault carried out over a trivial dispute. 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 was added to the tracker under the primary category - Attack not 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 Hindu businessman named Tonoy Ghosh was stabbed and seriously injured following a trivial dispute at Mosque Market in the Daudkandi area of Cumilla district, Bangladesh. He was attacked with a sharp knife by a Muslim man named Sahin Alam Babu after an argument over a minor issue. The incident occurred in the broader environment of sustained anti-Hindu hostility and insecurity prevailing in Bangladesh, where even ordinary disputes involving Hindus have increasingly escalated into severe and often life-threatening violence. While some may argue that the available details do not explicitly mention a religious motive, the broader context of anti-Hindu persecution in Bangladesh remains relevant for classification. During periods of sustained violence and intimidation directed at 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 facts of the case do not record explicit anti-Hindu slurs or declarations of motive. In such an atmosphere, the normalisation of hostility against Hindus and the growing dehumanisation of the minority community can influence acts of violence without perpetrators openly articulating religious intent. For the purpose of documenting the 2024 to 2026 ethnic cleansing of Hindus in Bangladesh and the subsequent persecution following 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 conclusively established through credible investigation or judicial findings to have stemmed from motives unrelated to religious hostility, the classification will be revised or removed from the hate crime database. In this case, the disproportionate level of violence deployed over a trivial market dispute reflects the increasingly precarious condition of Hindus in Bangladesh, where minor disagreements have repeatedly escalated into brutal assaults against members of the Hindu minority community. The use of a sharp weapon in a public market setting against a Hindu businessman demonstrates the extent to which violent aggression towards Hindus has become normalised in certain areas amidst the broader climate of communal hostility. Such incidents contribute to an atmosphere of fear and insecurity among Hindu traders and residents, particularly as attacks on Hindu-owned businesses, homes, temples, and individuals have repeatedly been documented during this period. The attack on Tonoy Ghosh therefore cannot be viewed entirely in isolation from the wider pattern of anti-Hindu violence unfolding across Bangladesh. The incident aligns with a documented trend in which Hindu individuals become vulnerable to extreme violence even in the course of routine daily interactions and commercial activities. Given the surrounding environment of sustained persecution and the nature of the assault, the case is recorded in the Hinduphobia Tracker’s hate crime database as a likely instance of faith-targeted violence, pending any future evidence establishing an alternative motive. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records incidents based on when an event occurred or when the victim's ordeal began. It is important to clarify that none of the media sources covering this case has specified the exact date when the victim was attacked. Therefore, for documentation purposes, we have recorded the date based on when the incident was reported in the media, 19 May 2026.