Hindu woman targeted for sexual assault by Muslim man amidst rising attacks on Hindu minorities in Bangladesh

Case ID : 30a9c5f | Location : Rajshahi Division, Bangladesh | Date of Incident : Mon, 3 August, 2026

Case ID : 30a9c5f

Rajshahi Division, Bangladesh

3 August, 2026

Hindu woman targeted for sexual assault by Muslim man amidst rising attacks on Hindu minorities in Bangladesh

Attack not resulting in death

Attacked for Hindu identity

Case Summary

In Rampura village of Adamdighi Upazila in Bogura district, Bangladesh, a Hindu housewife was subjected to an attempted sexual assault by a Muslim man named Masud Dewan (32). The incident took place on 4th August, 2026, around 3:30 AM after the victim returned home from accompanying her husband to the road while he went fishing. During this time, the accused, Masud Dewan, had been waiting near the house and grabbed her before attempting to sexually molest her. When she screamed, her husband and nearby people rushed to the spot, prompting Masud to flee by jumping into a nearby pond. On 5 August 2026, the Hindu woman filed a case against Masud Dewan at Adamdighi Police Station. Officer-in-Charge (OC) Kamruzzaman Mia said that the case was registered based on her complaint. Later, police conducted a raid with the assistance of information technology and arrested Masud Dewan. On 6 August 2026, he was produced before the court and sent to jail custody. This incident was part of an ongoing pattern of violence against Hindus in Bangladesh, where the community has repeatedly faced persecution, intimidation, and attacks on their homes, property, and religious institutions. Such attacks on Hindu minorities have become increasingly frequent and intensified since August 2024. This escalation of violence against Hindus in Bangladesh 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 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 underscored 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 suggested a broader 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 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 Hindu housewife from Rampura village in Adamdighi Upazila, Bogura district, Bangladesh, was targeted for sexual molestation by a Muslim man identified as Masud Dewan. On 4 August 2026, at around 3:30 AM, the victim was returning home after accompanying her husband to the road when Masud Dewan, who had been waiting near the house, grabbed her and attempted to molest her sexually. The victim's screams alerted her husband and nearby residents, prompting the accused to flee by jumping into a nearby pond. 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 crimes 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 incident involved the targeting of a Hindu woman at a particularly vulnerable time and location. The accused's act of waiting near the victim's residence, physically restraining her and attempting to sexually molest her constituted a serious assault on her personal safety and dignity. Her husband's intervention and the presence of nearby people prevented the assault from progressing further. By breaching the safety of a Hindu household to target a woman, the act reinforced existing concerns regarding the physical security of the religious minority. The incident contributed directly to the wider climate of marginalisation, demonstrating how targeted sexual violence acts as a mechanism for religiously motivated intimidation and communal subjugation. This incident must also be viewed within Bangladesh's broader anti-Hindu environment, where Hindu minorities have faced insecurity, intimidation, attacks on their homes, looting, violence, and threats to their safety. Attacks on Hindus have at times been presented as criminal activity, robbery, personal disputes, or other local conflicts, which can obscure the broader pattern of insecurity experienced by the Hindu community. The attempted molestation of the Hindu housewife in Rampura, followed by the arrest of Masud Dewan, occurred against this wider backdrop of violence affecting Hindu minorities. 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.