Hindu man found dead after days of disappearance following abduction from home in Bangladesh amidst ongoing persecution of Hindu minorities

Case ID : 30a8b1e | Location : Rangamati, Chittagong Division, Bangladesh | Date of Incident : Sun, 24 May, 2026

Case ID : 30a8b1e

Rangamati, Chittagong Division, Bangladesh

24 May, 2026

Hindu man found dead after days of disappearance following abduction from home in Bangladesh amidst ongoing persecution of Hindu minorities

Attack resulting in death

Attacked for Hindu identity

Case Summary

On 29th May 2026, in Rangamati, Chittagong, Bangladesh, Hindu farmer Shantu Bikash Chakma was found dead after being abducted from his home. His body was recovered from the Chengi River in the Burighat area three days after he disappeared. Shantu Bikash Chakma, a 48-year-old farmer from the Naniarchar area of Rangamati, was taken away from his home at midnight on the previous Monday. According to local sources and representatives, a group of unidentified individuals entered his house and forcibly abducted him without any explanation. After the abduction, his whereabouts remained unknown for three days. On the afternoon of 29th May 2026, local residents discovered Shantu Bikash Chakma’s body floating in the Chengi River. His hands and legs were found tied, and his body bore visible injury marks. Police recovered the body and began investigating the circumstances surrounding his abduction and killing. The incident created fear and insecurity among local residents. The killing of a Hindu man inside his own locality added to concerns among Hindu communities in Bangladesh, where minority families have repeatedly faced violence, intimidation, and threats. The targeting of Shantu Bikash Chakma, a Hindu farmer, took place amid a wider environment where Hindus have remained vulnerable to attacks on their lives, homes, businesses, temples, and community spaces. The killing reflected the continuing insecurity faced by Hindu minorities in Bangladesh. While the exact immediate motive behind the abduction and murder remained under investigation, the incident occurred within a broader climate of hostility and violence affecting Hindu communities. The abduction from his own home, the manner in which he was restrained, and the recovery of his body days later intensified concerns regarding the safety of Hindu minorities. 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 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, cases where the attack led to the death of the Hindu victim/s would be documented. In this case, Hindu man Shantu Bikash Chakma was abducted from his home in Rangamati, Bangladesh, and later found dead with his hands and legs tied and injury marks on his body. In the prevailing environment of anti-Hindu hostility in Bangladesh, this killing aligns with the wider pattern of violence, intimidation, and targeting faced by vulnerable Hindu minorities. The nature of the crime, involving the forcible removal of a Hindu man from the safety of his own home, his disappearance for several days, and the subsequent recovery of his body, demonstrates a calculated act of violence rather than a spontaneous confrontation. 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 violence 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. The brutality and calculated nature of this attack, in which Shantu Bikash Chakma was taken from his own home, remained missing for three days, and was later found dead with signs of physical restraint and violence, reflects a deliberate and preplanned act. The perpetrators did not merely attack the Hindu victim in a momentary dispute but removed him from a place where he should have been safe and subjected him to fatal violence. The targeted nature of the abduction and killing mirrors several documented incidents during this period in which Hindu individuals were singled out for intimidation, assault, and murder amid Bangladesh’s wider anti-Hindu persecution environment. This killing must be viewed within Bangladesh’s documented anti-Hindu ecosystem, where members of the Hindu minority have increasingly faced threats to their homes, livelihoods, and personal security. The abduction of a Hindu man from his residence before his killing created fear beyond the individual victim and affected the wider Hindu community living under similar conditions of vulnerability. Such acts contribute to an environment where Hindu identity itself becomes a factor increasing exposure to intimidation and violence. The killing of Shantu Bikash Chakma joins a growing number of cases involving Hindu victims in Bangladesh who have faced targeted violence during a period marked by attacks on Hindu homes, temples, businesses, and community members. The deliberate nature of the crime, the victim’s minority status, and the broader pattern of anti-Hindu hostility support its documentation as probable religious targeting, while remaining open to any new evidence that may emerge through investigation. Given Bangladesh's sustained anti-Hindu persecution environment, this case meets all thresholds for inclusion in the Hinduphobia Tracker's hate crime database.