Hindu man brutally killed amidst the ongoing persecution in Bangladesh; police and the victim's family called it a planned murder

Case ID : 9957ec0 | Location : Gopalganj District, Bangladesh | Date of Incident : Tue, 8 July, 2025

Case ID : 9957ec0

Gopalganj District, Bangladesh

8 July, 2025

Hindu man brutally killed amidst the ongoing persecution in Bangladesh; police and the victim's family called it a planned murder

Attack resulting in death

Attacked for Hindu identity

Case Summary

In Gopalganj, Bangladesh, a Hindu man named Gautam Gain was brutally murdered over a minor issue. According to reports, Gautam was a night watchman at JKMB Mallick High School in Jalirpar village. He left his home around 8:30 pm for his night duty at the school and never returned. His wife, Mili Bairagi, tried to locate her husband; however her Gautam's phone was switched off and he was not at the school. Thus, she decided to approach the police and file a complaint. However, on July 11, 2025, Gautam's body was recovered from the Madhumoti Bilroot Channel with his hands and feet tied. Police and the victim's family called it a planned murder. Gautam’s wife stated that about a month ago, some schoolteachers had accused him of theft by alleging he had cut the school grill and collected a fine of Tk 12,000 from the family. She said some teachers were opposed to his employment as the school guard and wanted to replace him with one of their candidates. The night on which he disappeared, he was last seen by a Muslim man named Mohammed Bachchu Mia, who was overseeing construction at the school. According to Bachchu, Gautam visited the site briefly before returning to his room. When Bachchu tried to contact him around 9:30 pm, he found the school gate locked and assumed that Gautam might have gone somewhere. After the discovery of the body, there was a huge public outrage. The public protested, demanding immediate justice and strict punishment for those responsible. Slogans were raised and speeches delivered by local school teachers and fellow Hindu political leaders, including Nilratan Bala, Rupalata Mondal, and Chintaharan Mondal. As of the date of writing this report, a case was registered by the police, and the investigation was ongoing, with police acknowledging it as a planned murder. This incident is a stark reminder of the atrocities Hindu minorities face in Islamic states like Bangladesh, which has only grown manifold following the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government on August 5, 2024. The instability had created an environment where extremist violence against the Hindu minority escalated. Reports indicated a surge in mob attacks targeting Hindu homes, many of which were set ablaze. Women were reportedly abducted and raped during these violent events. Additionally, multiple temples, including the historic Manasa Mata temple, were destroyed, further amplifying fear within the Hindu community.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category of: - Attack resulting in death. Within it, 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. This case has been added to the tracker because a Hindu man was brutally murdered by extremists. When his body was recovered, his hands and legs were tied, further portraying the brutality of the act. The police and the victim's family called it a planned murder. The victim's wife also stated that some schoolteachers were opposed to his employment as a security guard in the school, which could be a possible reason for his brutal murder. This is on the lines of a pattern where, in Muslim majority countries like Bangladesh, Hindus are often targeted and killed with impunity for even minor inconveniences or scuffles. If such an incident had occurred elsewhere, we might have considered placing it under the "Undecided" database of the Hinduphobia Tracker, as the case details do not explicitly indicate a religious motive, allowing room to interpret it as a crime of opportunity or personal enmity. However, since, in this instance, the Hindu man was murdered in Bangladesh, 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 markers 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.