18-year-old Hindu girl abducted in broad daylight in Bangladesh amidst rampant Hindu persecution

Case ID : 5954b44 | Location : Rajbari District, Bangladesh | Date of Incident : Sun, 8 September, 2024

Case ID : 5954b44

Rajbari District, Bangladesh

8 September, 2024

18-year-old Hindu girl abducted in broad daylight in Bangladesh amidst rampant Hindu persecution

Attack not resulting in death

Attacked for Hindu identity

Case Summary

In Jamalpur market in Rajbari district, an 18-year-old Hindu girl, a student of Jamalpur Degree College, was abducted in broad daylight. Her father filed a complaint at Baliakandi police station, but no action was reported. According to the complaint, the victim called her mother at around 10:15 AM, saying she was being followed with malicious intent. Shortly after, her phone was switched off. Her family rushed to the market and searched the area, but could not find her. He expressed grave concern for her safety and provided detailed information about her in the complaint. It was reported that Tama was abducted by Bangladeshi jihadists. The broader context included reports of systematic efforts to marginalise Hindus, with frequent incidents of murder, rape, forced conversion, abduction, and attacks on properties and temples. The situation reportedly worsened since the rise of hardline Islamist groups like Jamaat-e-Islami and BNP, who intensified their efforts to target Hindus following political changes. Amid these developments, the Hindu community in Bangladesh continued to face fear and uncertainty, with little intervention or assurance of justice. Since the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government on August 5, 2024, Bangladesh plunged into chaos as Islamist extremists took advantage of the political turmoil to unleash a wave of terror and violence against the Hindu community.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

The primary category selected is - Attack not resulting in death. The sub-category 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, while the available details do not explicitly indicate a religious motive, the broader context cannot be ignored. When there is an ongoing ethnic cleansing based on religious identity, every crime in and of itself is assumed to be motivated by the same religious animosity, even if there is a lack of a specific religious marker in the immediate crime. During an ongoing ethnic cleansing, the dehumanisation of people based on their religious identity and the normalisation of religious hostility drive the crimes committed against them, even when there is a lack of stated religious motive. For the purpose of documenting the 2024 ethnic cleansing of Hindus in Bangladesh, the Hinduphobia Tracker is assuming religious motivation ab initio. If a case is specifically and beyond a reasonable doubt proven to be driven by motivations other than religious hostility, it will post-facto be removed from the hate crime database.