Hindu man killed on day of Eid al-Adha in Dhaka amidst ongoing persecution of religious minorities in Bangladesh

Case ID : 30a8f8b | Location : Dhaka District, Bangladesh | Date of Incident : Wed, 27 May, 2026

Case ID : 30a8f8b

Dhaka District, Bangladesh

27 May, 2026

Hindu man killed on day of Eid al-Adha in Dhaka amidst ongoing persecution of religious minorities in Bangladesh

Attack resulting in death

Attacked for Hindu identity

Case Summary

In Nawabganj, Dhaka, Bangladesh, a Hindu man was killed by unidentified miscreants, and his body was later dumped in a pond. The victim went missing on the day of Eid al-Adha on 28 May 2026, and his body was recovered on 4 June 2026. On the morning of 4 June 2026, locals spotted his half-decomposed body floating in the water on the eastern side of a bank of Arial Beel in the Nikra Chowk area and informed the police. The deceased was identified as Narayan Sarkar (50), a resident of Boro Boxnagar Chaurahati village in Nawabganj upazila. He worked as a Thai glass and woodworking mechanic and had been employed in the Bashundhara area of Dhaka for the past six months. He had returned home on 26 May 2026 on the occasion of Eid al-Adha. According to the case details, on the morning of Eid, Narayan Sarkar went fishing on the banks of Arial Beel in Nikra with Jagdish Sarkar (47) of Boro Boxnagar village. He went missing thereafter. Despite extensive searches, his wife, Champa Rani Sarkar, filed a general diary with Nawabganj Police Station the following day. She later filed a case at Nawabganj Police Station on 31 May 2026, naming two individuals and four to five unidentified persons, stating that her husband had been abducted with the intention of killing him. Seven days after his disappearance, relatives and locals resumed the search in the Arial Beel area on the morning of 4 June 2026. During the search, they found his half-decomposed body floating in muddy water on the eastern side of a bank in the Nikra Chowk area. The police were informed, and the Nawabganj Police recovered the body from the scene. Nawabganj Police Station Officer-in-Charge Md Abu Hanif stated that the body was sent for autopsy to the morgue of Sir Salimullah Medical College (Mitford) Hospital in Dhaka. He added that the two accused named in the case had been arrested on the night the case was filed and were taken on one-day remand. He further stated that an investigation was underway to determine the exact cause of death and that legal action would follow based on the findings. 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 ?

The primary category selected in this case is: 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 Hindu man, Narayan Sarkar, was killed by seven unidentified assailants in Bangladesh, on the day of Eid al-Adha while fishing. His body was recovered from a water body several days after his disappearance. In the prevailing environment of anti-Hindu hostility in Bangladesh, the incident aligns with the broader pattern of insecurity, violence, and targeting faced by vulnerable Hindu minorities. While some may argue that the available details do not explicitly establish a religious motive, the broader context of anti-Hindu hostility, persecution, and insecurity in Bangladesh remains relevant for classification. During periods marked by sustained violence, intimidation, and targeting of Hindus based on their religious identity, the Hinduphobia Tracker applies a contextual presumption that attacks on Hindu victims may be faith-targeted, even when immediate reports do not record an explicit religious motive or attribute the violence to criminal or local circumstances. In such circumstances, the vulnerability of Hindu communities and the normalisation of hostility towards religious minorities can contribute to attacks occurring without perpetrators openly expressing religious intent. 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 killing of Narayan Sarkar, whose body was later recovered from Arial Beel in Nawabganj, generated concern among local Hindus due to the violent nature of the incident and the fact that the victim belonged to a vulnerable minority community. Although the immediate circumstances suggest that the case involved fishing activity followed by a targeted criminal act, the fatal outcome reinforced existing fears among Hindus living in environments where violent crimes against Hindus remain unresolved or lack immediate clarity regarding motive. This incident must also be viewed within the broader context of hostility affecting vulnerable minority communities in Bangladesh, where violent hate crimes are often attributed to personal disputes, local conflicts, fishing-related altercations, or criminal activity, thereby leaving the underlying motive unclear in the early stages of reporting. In many such cases, initial explanations can obscure the possibility of deeper intent until a full investigation is completed. The brutal murder of Narayan Sarkar and the recovery of his body from a water body after several days also contributed to heightened concern within the local Hindu community, reinforcing tensions regarding vulnerability in cases where Hindu individuals go missing under unclear circumstances and are later found dead under suspicious conditions. The fact that this incident occurred on the day of Eid-ul-Adha further heightened concerns within the local Hindu community, as it introduced a sensitive religious context to an already disturbing case. It intensified the underlying communal tension, particularly given the heightened sensitivities that often accompany major religious festivals. In the broader context of Bangladesh, where concerns about minority safety have periodically been reported, the timing of the incident strengthened perceptions of possible religious hostility, even though no clear motive had been formally established at that stage. Given the prevailing anti-Hindu persecution environment in Bangladesh and the continuing pattern of violence affecting vulnerable Hindu minorities, this case meets the threshold for inclusion in the Hinduphobia Tracker's hate crime database.