Muslims in Bangladesh behead Hindu leader, body with hands and feet tied found dumped near railway track

Case ID : 90a083e | Location : Dinajpur District, Bangladesh | Date of Incident : Sun, 16 February, 2025

Case ID : 90a083e

Dinajpur District, Bangladesh

16 February, 2025

Muslims in Bangladesh behead Hindu leader, body with hands and feet tied found dumped near railway track

Attack resulting in death

Attacked for Hindu identity

Case Summary

The mutilated body of a Hindu Awami League leader identified as Bharat Chandra from Parbatipur upazila in the Dinajpur district of Bangladesh was found dumped near a railway track at the Haldibari rail gate. According to reports, the victim was beheaded and his hands and feet were tied. The victim was 50 years old and a resident of Kalikapur village. Bharat Chandra’s body was later sent to Dinajpur Medical College Hospital for autopsy. While speaking about the matter, Bharat’s son Ripon informed, “My father was the organising secretary of the Chandipur Union Awami League and worked as a wayman for the railway.” The victim had been missing since Monday morning (February 17th). His phone had remained switched off since that evening. Parbatipur Railway Police Station OC, Fakhrul Islam stated, “Our initial assessment suggests that he was murdered first, and then his body was placed on the railway tracks, where his head was severed.”

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the prime category of- Attack resulting in death and within 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.