Hindu youth killed amidst large-scale persecution of Hindus in Bangladesh

Case Summary
A Hindu youth named Arnab Kumar Sarkar was shot dead by Muslims at the Tentultala intersection in Khulna city, Bangladesh. Arnab, a 26-year-old master’s student at Khulna University, was near a tea stall, drinking tea on his motorcycle, when the incident occurred. A group of bike-borne assailants opened fire on him, fatally injuring him with a bullet to the head before fleeing the scene. Shafiqul Islam, the chief of Sonadanga Police Station, stated, “Locals quickly came to his aid and rushed him to City Medical College Hospital, but doctors pronounced him dead on arrival.” Deputy Commissioner of Khulna City Police (southern division), Md Moniruzzaman, described the attackers as “terrorists” and confirmed that an investigation is underway to uncover the motive behind the murder. The news of this murder has come amidst the large-scale ethnic cleansing of minority Hindus that has been going on in Bangladesh since the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government on August 5th, 2024. Since then, Bangladesh has plunged into chaos as Islamist extremists have taken advantage of the political turmoil to unleash a wave of terror and violence against the Hindu community. The Islamist mobs have attacked Hindu homes, burned them to the ground, and abducted women in a horrific descent into anarchy. Several temples have been destroyed in various parts of the Islamic country in a major crackdown on Hindus. Further, the arrest of three Hindu priests, attempts to ban the Hindu organisation ISKCON and stifling Hindu protests with cases of ‘sedition’ highlight systematic persecution under the interim government of Muhammad Yunus. There have been multiple instances of attacks on Hindus under the pretext of ‘blasphemy.’ The recent cases of Hridoy Pal, Utsab Mandal, Partha Biswas Pintu, Akash Das, Pranta Talukder and Utsab Kumar Gian are shining examples of targeted persecution. So far, there have been many attempts to downplay violence against Hindus as ‘fake‘, ‘exaggerated‘ or ‘politically motivated‘. Now, the recent killing of Hindu youth Arnab Kumar Sarkar in Khulna serves as a stark reminder of the increasing vulnerability faced by Hindu minorities amidst rising hostility in the Islamic state of Bangladesh.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under the prime category of- Attack resulting in death. Under this, the sub-category selected here 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, cases where the attack led to the death of the Hindu victim/s would be documented. 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 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 drives the crimes committed against them even when there is a lack of stated religious motive. To document the 2024 ethnic cleansing of Hindus in Bangladesh, the Hinduphobia Tracker is assuming religious motivation ab initio. If a case is specifically and beyond reasonable doubt proven to be driven by motivations other than religious hostility, it will post-facto be removed from the hate crime database.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
1
Gender
- Male 1
- Female 0
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 0
- OBC 0
- General 1
- Unknown 0
Age Group
- Minor 0
- Adult 1
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0

Case Status
Unknown

Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
Unknown
Perpetrators Gender
unknown