Hindu minor schoolgirl abducted by Muslim man on the way to examination in Bangladesh

Case ID : 30a887b | Location : Bandarban District, Bangladesh | Date of Incident : Wed, 6 May, 2026

Case ID : 30a887b

Bandarban District, Bangladesh

6 May, 2026

Hindu minor schoolgirl abducted by Muslim man on the way to examination in Bangladesh

Attack not resulting in death

Attacked for Hindu identity

Case Summary

A Hindu minor schoolgirl from Bandarban district in Bangladesh disappeared on 7th May 2026 while travelling to sit for her school examination. Hours later, her family learnt that she had been forcibly taken away by a Muslim man identified as Md. Tanvir. Days passed without her rescue, deepening fear and panic within the Hindu family and the surrounding Hindu community. The Hindu minor girl, identified as Puja Das, was a resident of Bandarban district and the daughter of Subrata Das and Daisy Das. She left home on the morning of 7th May 2026 to attend her examination. According to her family, she never returned home after leaving for school. Her disappearance immediately triggered concern among relatives, who began searching for her across nearby areas. The victim’s family stated that Md. Tanvir forcibly abducted the Hindu minor girl while she was on her way to sit for her examination. Following her disappearance, the family searched multiple locations and attempted to gather information regarding her whereabouts. During the search, they received information that the Hindu minor girl was being kept inside a residence in the Patharghata area under Kotwali Police Station in Chattogram city. After receiving this information, members of the victim’s family travelled from Bandarban to Chattogram along with police personnel in an attempt to recover her. However, the family stated that they did not receive the expected level of cooperation from the local administration in Kotwali despite identifying the location where the Hindu minor girl was believed to be held. The family further stated that they later obtained information from a trusted source that the abductors had moved the girl to the Mohin Das Lane area of Patharghata. Despite the family sharing this information, no successful recovery operation had taken place even after several days had passed since the abduction. By 14th May 2026, six days had elapsed since the Hindu minor girl was abducted. The victim’s family expressed fear and distress over the continued disappearance of their daughter and questioned why effective intervention had not taken place despite repeated efforts to locate her. The family demanded the immediate rescue of the minor girl and legal action against those involved in her abduction. The continued failure to recover the victim despite the family providing information regarding her whereabouts further heightened concern and outrage within the community. The incident generated outrage and concern within the local area. Members of the Hindu community expressed alarm over the abduction of a Hindu girl while she was travelling alone to sit for her examination. The victim’s family stated that they feared for her safety and wellbeing as each day passed without her recovery. This incident occurred amid a continuing wave of violence, intimidation, and persecution targeting Hindus across Bangladesh following the political instability that emerged after the ouster of Sheikh Hasina’s government in August 2024. During this period, multiple incidents involving attacks on Hindu homes, temples, businesses, and women were documented across several districts. Hindu minority communities increasingly faced insecurity, intimidation, forced displacement, and targeted assaults. A further escalation of anti Hindu hostility unfolded after the death of Sharif Osman Bin Hadi in December 2025. Hindu communities across Bangladesh faced retaliatory violence, mob attacks, arson, and targeted intimidation. Hindu homes and neighbourhoods were selectively attacked in multiple regions, while several incidents involved violence against Hindu women and girls. The Hinduphobia Tracker documented dozens of incidents during this period involving attacks directed at vulnerable Hindu minorities. 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 was, 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. In this case, a Hindu minor schoolgirl from Bandarban district in Bangladesh was forcibly abducted while travelling alone to sit for her school examination. The victim, Puja Das, disappeared on 7th May 2026 after leaving home for her examination and was later traced by her family to locations linked to Muslim man Md. Tanvir. In the prevailing environment of anti Hindu hostility in Bangladesh, this incident aligned with the broader pattern of insecurity, targeting, and violence faced by vulnerable Hindu minorities, particularly Hindu girls and women. While some may argue that the case details did not explicitly state a religious motive, the broader context of anti Hindu persecution in Bangladesh remained 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 hostility against Hindus and the increasing vulnerability of minority communities can contribute to crimes against them without perpetrators openly declaring a communal 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. The calculated nature of this abduction, in which a Hindu minor girl travelling to attend her school examination was forcibly taken away and hidden across multiple locations, mirrored several documented incidents involving vulnerable Hindu girls in Bangladesh during this period. The victim came from a Hindu minority family and was targeted while alone and outside the protection of her home. The case warranted documentation as probable religious targeting given the victim’s Hindu identity, her vulnerability as a minor girl, and the wider pattern of attacks and intimidation directed at Hindu minorities in Bangladesh, while remaining open to any new evidence that may emerge through investigation. This abduction in Bandarban must be viewed within Bangladesh’s documented anti Hindu environment, where Hindu families increasingly faced insecurity, intimidation, and fear regarding the safety of women and minor girls. The family’s repeated attempts to locate and recover the victim, alongside allegations of insufficient urgency in response despite information regarding her whereabouts, reflected the growing sense of helplessness experienced by many Hindu families during this period. The prolonged failure to recover the victim despite information regarding her whereabouts further intensified anxiety within the local Hindu community. The victim’s family joined numerous Hindu households across Bangladesh whose religious identity had increasingly become a source of vulnerability amidst continuing communal hostility. Given the prevailing anti Hindu persecution environment in Bangladesh and the broader pattern of attacks on vulnerable Hindu minorities, this case met the threshold for inclusion in the Hinduphobia Tracker’s hate crime database.