Hindu teachers threatened with death and family harm over extortion demands in Faridpur, Bangladesh

Case ID : 30aa48a | Location : Faridpur District, Bangladesh | Date of Incident : Tue, 1 September, 2026

Case ID : 30aa48a

Faridpur District, Bangladesh

1 September, 2026

Hindu teachers threatened with death and family harm over extortion demands in Faridpur, Bangladesh

Hate speech against Hindus

Violent threats

Case Summary

In Boalmari, Faridpur district, Bangladesh, eight Hindu teachers of Sirajul Islam Women’s College received extortion-related death threats over mobile phones. The callers threatened to kill the teachers and harm their family members if the demanded money was not paid. The threats gave the teachers about one week to pay the extortion amount. The Hindu teachers named in the material were Debsish Roy, Niloy Kumar Saha, Sajal Kanti Biswas, Pradip Kumar Saha, Robin Laskar, Swapan Kumar Biswas, Sanjib Kumar Roy and Paresh Kumar Paul. The callers demanded money described locally as “Rangdari” or protection money and warned of severe consequences, including murder and attacks on their families, if the demand was not met. After receiving the threatening calls, the teachers approached Boalmari Police Station and filed a General Diary (GD). According to the material provided, the teachers submitted the GD about a week earlier, around 2nd of September, 2026, but were still living in fear because no effective protective action had followed by that stage. The incident specifically affected Hindu teaching staff, leaving the eight teachers and their families in fear of violence over the extortion demand. The case adds to concerns surrounding threats, intimidation and extortion directed at members of Bangladesh’s Hindu minority community. This incident occurred against the broader backdrop of the historical persecution faced by Hindus in Bangladesh. While the Hindu minority has endured discrimination, targeted violence, and religious hostility over decades, such persecution has intensified in distinct spurts during periods of political and social instability. The latest major escalation began after the ouster of Sheikh Hasina’s government in August 2024, continued after the death of Sharif Osman Bin Hadi in December 2025, and resurfaced in the immediate aftermath of the 13th National Parliamentary Election in 2026. Following the ouster of Sheikh Hasina, multiple incidents involving attacks on Hindu homes, temples and religious institutions were documented, alongside intimidation, arson and mob violence targeting Hindu localities. The Hinduphobia Tracker recorded 336 incidents involving the Hindu minority during this period, reflecting the scale of the escalation and the continuing vulnerability of Hindus in Bangladesh. A further spurt of violence followed the death of Sharif Osman Bin Hadi, a Muslim political activist and student leader known for his anti-Hindu and anti-India rhetoric, in December 2025. In the aftermath, Hindu communities were subjected to retaliatory violence, with Hindu homes and properties selectively attacked and several families forced to flee. Among the victims was Dipu Chandra Das, who was lynched and whose body was subsequently 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, further illustrating how existing hostility towards the Hindu minority intensified during moments of communal mobilisation. During the same period, posters and written material calling for the extermination of Hindus were also displayed in public spaces. Such rhetoric, when viewed alongside incidents of arson, vandalism, assault and targeted intimidation, reflected an environment in which hostility towards Hindus was not merely episodic but repeatedly resurfaced in more intense forms during periods of unrest. The most recent escalation followed the 13th National Parliamentary Election in 2026. In the immediate aftermath of the election results, Hindu families in districts including Noakhali, Rangpur, Nilphamari, Sylhet, Thakurgaon and Dinajpur faced attacks involving arson, looting, assault and vandalism of Hindu homes and temples. In several instances, Hindu properties were selectively targeted, and families were threatened with displacement. The present incident therefore occurred within a much longer history of persecution of Hindus in Bangladesh, where hostility towards the community has persisted over time and intensified in repeated spurts. The latest cycle began after the ouster of Sheikh Hasina and continued through subsequent periods of political and communal upheaval, leaving the Hindu minority increasingly vulnerable to targeted violence, intimidation and religious hostility.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

The primary category selected for this case is: Hate speech against Hindus. The subcategory selected for this case is: Violent Threats. Violent threats, explicit, implicit or implied, is the most dangerous form of hate speech since it goes beyond discriminatory and prejudicial language to express the intent of causing harm to an individual or a group of people based on their religious identity and faith. There could be several different kinds of threats that are issued to Hindus based on religious animosity. An explicit threat would mean the direct threat of violence towards an individual Hindu, a group of Hindus or Hindus at large. Physical violence, death threats, threats of destruction of property belonging to Hindus and threats of genocide would mean explicit threats against Hindus for their religious identity. Implicit threats may not be a direct threat but implied through the use of symbols of actions – for example – in the Nupur Sharma case, other than explicit threats, there were also implicit threats when Islamists took to the streets to burn and beat her effigies. It implies that they want to do the same to Nupur Sharma – thereby is considered an implicit threat. Violent threats can be delivered in person, through letters, phone calls, graffiti, or increasingly through social media and other online platforms. It would be important to understand that a threat – explicit or implicit, online or offline – to an individual who happens to be a Hindu does not qualify as a religiously motivated threat. Such a threat, while vile and dangerous, could be owing to non-religious reasons and/or personal animosity. To qualify as a religiously motivated threat, it would need to exhibit an indication that the individual is being targeted for religious reasons and/or owing to his/her religious identity as a Hindu. This case was included in the Hinduphobia Tracker because the intimidation was directed collectively at Hindu teachers, specifically, making their religious identity the defining common feature of the victim group. The significance lies not merely in the demand for money, but in the selective targeting of several members of the same religious minority through threats severe enough to place both their lives and their families in fear. When a group of Hindus is singled out in this manner without any separate individual provocation, the targeting acquires a clear religion-linked character. The threats went beyond ordinary extortion. Rangdari—the practice of demanding “protection money” under threat of violence—has historically been used as a means of intimidating vulnerable Hindu communities in Bangladesh. For Hindus living as a religious minority, such demands can become more than ordinary extortion when Muslim perpetrators use threats of violence to assert control over them. By demanding that Hindus pay money for “protection” from those who themselves threaten their safety, the practice can reinforce a sense of Islamic dominance in which the Hindu minority is expected to submit, comply and pay for the privilege of living safely within its own community. This dimension is particularly significant when rangdari is directed specifically at Hindu victims. The demand is not merely for money; backed by threats of murder, attacks on family members or displacement, it places Hindus in a position of enforced submission. Such conduct reflects an assertion of religious supremacy when Muslim perpetrators treat Hindu security, property and continued presence as conditions that they have the power to determine—and for which Hindus must pay. That context is directly relevant to the present case. The eight teachers targeted in Boalmari were all Hindu, and the callers threatened not only to kill them but also to harm their families if the demanded rangdari was not paid. The victims were therefore being compelled to purchase “protection” through fear of violence. When a Hindu minority is made to pay Muslim perpetrators for protection from the very violence they threaten to inflict, the extortion becomes a mechanism of intimidation, control and religious subordination rather than a purely financial crime. In this instance, the accused created a climate in which Hindu professionals were made to feel that their safety and continued public presence were conditional upon submission to coercive demands. This kind of intimidation is especially serious in the context of a numerically vulnerable minority because it reinforces insecurity and communicates that members of the community can be individually identified, pressured and threatened with little regard for their basic right to live and work without fear. Against the broader history of anti-Hindu persecution in Bangladesh, the incident further illustrates how economic intimidation can be used alongside threats of violence to keep the Hindu minority vulnerable and compliant. The religious element lies not simply in the identities of the perpetrators and victims, but in the manner in which power is exercised over Hindus as a minority; through fear, forced compliance and the expectation that they must submit to the authority of those asserting dominance over them. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records an incident based on the date it occurred, rather than the date it was subsequently discussed or circulated. In this case, the exact date on which the Hindu teachers first began receiving the extortion and death threats could not be conclusively established. Therefore, 2nd September 2026, the date on which the affected teachers filed a General Diary (GD) with Boalmari Police Station, has been recorded as the indicative incident date for documentation purposes only. Disclaimer: The identity of the perpetrator or perpetrators responsible for issuing the extortion and death threats to the Hindu teachers has not yet been revealed in the available material. Therefore, the Hinduphobia Tracker has recorded the perpetrator identity as “Unknown” for documentation purposes.