Case Summary

In Mongla, Bagerhat district, Bangladesh, a Hindu family was brutally attacked by a group of armed Muslims under the pretext of a land dispute, leaving seven members injured. According to the complaint filed by the victim's family, Sandeep Mandal (65), a resident of the Dattarmeth area, and his Muslim neighbour, Lutfar Fakir (55), had been involved in a long-running dispute over land grabbing. On 23 June 2026, during the official measurement of the disputed land in the presence of local dignitaries and other concerned individuals, Lutfar Fakir, along with his associates, launched a violent attack on Sandeep Mandal's family using iron rods and sticks. One of the injured women stated that the attackers struck her father on the head with a stick and an iron rod, then kicked her repeatedly in the chest until she collapsed before fleeing the scene. She said that her father, husband, brother, and another woman in the family were also assaulted during the attack. An injured male family member stated that Lutfar Fakir was carrying a brick and an iron rod and attacked his brother-in-law, Gopal. He said that after the initial assault, the attackers entered the family's house carrying rods and sticks. He identified one of the assailants as Pahad, the son of Lutfar Fakir, and stated that Lutfar carried an iron rod while Pahad carried a stick during the attack. The assault left Sandeep Mandal (65), Gopal Chandra (42), Manojit Mondal (42), Shipu Mondal (24), Rimpal Mondal (22), Nipu Mondal (34), and Kalpana Mondal (55) injured. All seven victims were admitted to the Mongla Upazila Health Complex for treatment. Local residents demanded a fair investigation into the incident, swift legal action against the perpetrators, and measures to ease the tension in the area arising from the land 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.

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Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case is 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 the 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 family in Mongla Upazila, Bangladesh, was brutally attacked by a group of Muslim assailants after opposing land grabbing during the official measurement of disputed land. 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 point towards a local dispute and 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 attribute the violence to personal, criminal, or local disputes and do not record an explicit religious motive. 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 attack generated concern among local Hindus because the victims belonged to a vulnerable religious minority community. Although the immediate pretext was described as a dispute over land ownership and measurement following opposition to land grabbing, the violent assault on multiple members of the Hindu family, including women, reinforced existing fears among Hindus living in an environment already characterised by recurring incidents of anti-Hindu hostility, intimidation, land-related coercion, and violence. This incident must also be viewed within Bangladesh's broader anti-Hindu environment, where Hindu minorities frequently face insecurity, intimidation, land-related conflicts, social pressure, and violence. Attacks on Hindus are often attributed to ostensibly non-religious causes such as personal disputes, criminal activities, property disagreements, or other local conflicts, thereby obscuring the possibility of underlying religious hostility. In many instances, such explanations divert attention from the broader pattern of discrimination and violence faced by Hindu minorities. The assault on this Hindu family contributed to feelings of insecurity within the local Hindu community and reinforced the reality of vulnerability, irrespective of whether the perpetrators explicitly stated a religious motive. 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. Disclaimer: Although the attack involved multiple perpetrators, only two individuals, Lutfar Fakir and his son Pahad, have been specifically identified by name in the available sources. As the total number of perpetrators has not been specified, the perpetrator count has been recorded as 2, based solely on the identified individuals. This count may be updated in future if additional perpetrators are identified through credible sources.