Hindu woman faces attempted rape by Muslim man; other Hindu houses also targeted for robbery in Chattogram, Bangladesh

Case ID : 30a944a | Location : Chittagong District, Bangladesh | Date of Incident : Wed, 1 July, 2026

Case ID : 30a944a

Chittagong District, Bangladesh

1 July, 2026

Hindu woman faces attempted rape by Muslim man; other Hindu houses also targeted for robbery in Chattogram, Bangladesh

Attack not resulting in death

Attacked for Hindu identity

Case Summary

In the Jelepara area of Barbakunda Union under Sitakunda Upazila in Chattogram district, Bangladesh, a Hindu woman was targeted for attempted rape by a Muslim man, Rabiul Hossain (29). The victim was from a traditional Hindu family. The Muslim accused held her hostage at gunpoint inside her home during the night and attempted to rape her. During the same incident, he looted cash and a mobile phone from the family's residence before fleeing. The attack left the victim and her family traumatised and fearing for their safety. On the same night, 2-3 other Hindu households were targeted and looted, creating fear and anxiety in the local Hindu community. The incident occurred at approximately 1:00 a.m. on 2nd July 2026, when the Hindu victim, identified as Pooja Das (19), was alone at her family home while her husband, Biplob Das, and other fishermen from the locality were away fishing at sea. Taking advantage of her isolation, Rabiul Hossain, a resident of the neighbouring Judarpara area, entered the house armed with a country-made firearm. He held the Hindu housewife hostage at gunpoint, threatened her, attempted to rape her inside her own residence, and stole cash and other valuables from the house. Following the incident, the family submitted a written complaint to Sitakunda Model Police Station seeking legal action against him. As the victim raised an alarm and screamed for help, local residents began approaching the house. Rabiul Hossain fled the scene before he could complete the attempted sexual assault. While escaping, he took cash and a mobile phone belonging to the family from the residence. When Biplob Das returned home from fishing the following morning, he found his wife in a distressed and traumatised condition. She recounted the events of the previous night, describing how Rabiul Hossain had threatened her with a firearm, attempted to rape her, and robbed the house while she was alone inside. The attack extended beyond a single household. During the same night, three Hindu fishermen's families in the locality became targets of coordinated criminal activity. Cash and mobile phones were looted from the homes of two other Hindu fisherman families, indicating that multiple residences belonging to members of the Hindu fishing community were targeted over the course of the night. Following the incident, Pooja Das, her husband Biplob Das, and family members Amal Das and Shanti Rani Das submitted a written complaint to Sitakunda Model Police Station. The family stated that they had been left living in extreme fear and insecurity following the attack. They demanded the immediate arrest of Rabiul Hossain and exemplary punishment under the law. 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 18th 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. 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 suggested 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 the results, Hindu families in districts including Noakhali, Rangpur, Nilphamari, Sylhet, Thakurgaon, and Dinajpur experienced 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 has been added to the tracker under the primary category - Attack not resulting in death. Within this, 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. In this case, a young Hindu housewife, Pooja Das, was held hostage at gunpoint inside her home, where an attempt was made to rape her before cash and other valuables were looted from her family's residence in Chattogram, Bangladesh. The attack also formed part of a broader series of incidents in which multiple Hindu fishermen's families in the locality were targeted during the same night. In the prevailing environment of anti-Hindu hostility and insecurity in Bangladesh, the incident aligns with the broader pattern of violence, intimidation, and attacks faced by vulnerable Hindu minorities. While some may argue that the available information points towards criminal activity, robbery, or sexual violence and does 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, looting, attacks on Hindu homes, and targeting of Hindu families 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 criminal motives 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 2024–2026 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 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 fear and insecurity among the local Hindu community because the victim belonged to a vulnerable religious minority and was targeted while alone inside her home. The attempted sexual assault at gunpoint, followed by the looting of the family's belongings, and the targeting of other Hindu fishermen's households during the same night, reinforced existing concerns among local Hindus regarding their personal safety, security of their homes, and vulnerability to violence. The incident left the victim and her family living in fear and contributed to a wider sense of insecurity within the Hindu community. This incident must also be viewed within Bangladesh's broader anti-Hindu environment, where Hindu minorities frequently face insecurity, intimidation, attacks on their homes, looting, violence, and threats to their safety. Attacks on Hindus are often attributed to ostensibly non-religious causes such as criminal activity, robbery, personal disputes, or other local conflicts, thereby obscuring the possibility of underlying religious hostility. In many instances, such explanations can divert attention from the broader pattern of discrimination and violence faced by Hindu minorities. The attack on Pooja Das and the looting of multiple Hindu fishermen's households 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: In this case, although multiple other Hindu households were also targeted during the same incident, the primary victim is Pooja Das alone. The total number of other Hindu households and their affected family members has not been specified in the available information. Hence, for documentation purposes, the victim count has been recorded as one, referring solely to Pooja Das.