Hindu businessman kidnapped, threatened with death amid ethnic cleansing of Hindus in Bangladesh

Case ID : 90a0a98 | Location : Brahmanbaria District, Bangladesh | Date of Incident : Sat, 15 March, 2025

Case ID : 90a0a98

Brahmanbaria District, Bangladesh

15 March, 2025

Hindu businessman kidnapped, threatened with death amid ethnic cleansing of Hindus in Bangladesh

Attack not resulting in death

Attacked for Hindu identity

Case Summary

In Nasirnagar Upazila, in the Brahmanbaria district of Bangladesh, a 26-year-old Hindu businessman named Nayan Chandra Das was abducted and threatened with death unless a ransom of Tk 10 lakhs was paid. According to media reports, Nayan was kidnapped from a market in Nasirnagar. The kidnappers threatened to kill him if the ransom of Tk 10 lakhs was not paid by 17th March 2025. They also warned his family against reporting the matter to the police. The victim’s mother filed a complaint at Nasirnagar police station. Ratna Rani Das, the victim's mother, said, “My son was married just 10 days ago. He owns a mobile repair shop. Some strangers came to meet Nayan in a vehicle. They asked for his name and confirmed the address of the shop. The men then forcibly took my son in a vehicle.” This incident was confirmed by Nasirnagar Police Station’s OC, Mohammed Khairul Alam. The police have launched an investigation into the matter. This incident has caused fear and panic among the Hindu community in the area. Local Hindus have demanded the immediate rescue of the victim and the arrest of the accused kidnappers. This case highlights the ongoing hatred, intolerance, violence, and bigotry faced by the Hindus in Bangladesh at the hands of the majority Muslim population. The level of hostility and religious intolerance against Hindus in Bangladesh continues to escalate, with such abductions and attacks becoming alarmingly frequent, especially since the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government on August 5, 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 Hindu priests has exacerbated the situation, with Hindu minorities protesting across Bangladesh seeking justice.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the prime category of- Attack not resulting in death. 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. 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.