Missing minor Hindu girl's mutilated body found with wrist cut and neck severed in Bangladesh

Case ID : 90a0748 | Location : Moulvibazar District, Bangladesh | Date of Incident : Tue, 4 February, 2025

Case ID : 90a0748

Moulvibazar District, Bangladesh

4 February, 2025

Missing minor Hindu girl's mutilated body found with wrist cut and neck severed in Bangladesh

Attack resulting in death

Attacked for Hindu identity

Case Summary

Police in Kamalganj, Moulvibazar, recovered the body of 11-year-old Purnima Reli, a fourth-grade student at Shamsernagar Primary School, who had been missing for 12 hours. She was the daughter of Apnan Reli, a resident of Tiller No. 6 in Shamsernagar Tea Garden. On the evening of February 5, 2025, Purnima left home to bring her cattle from the field but never returned. Her family searched throughout the night but failed to locate her. The next morning, local tea garden workers discovered her mutilated body near Camellia Lake in Section No. 11 of Shamsernagar Tea Garden. She was found covered in blood, with her throat severed and her right wrist cut. Upon being informed, police arrived at the scene and recovered the body. Former UP member Sitaram Bin emphasised the family's poverty and the tragic loss of a young student, urging swift justice. Since the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government on August 5, 2024, 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, this recent killing of the Hindu minor girl 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 and under this, 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, cases where the attack led to the death of the Hindu victim/s would be documented. 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 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. 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 reasonable doubt proven to be driven by motivations other than religious hostility, it will post-facto be removed from the hate crime database.