Hindu woman assaulted and raped by two Muslim men amidst the ongoing persecution of Hindus in Bangladesh

Case ID : 99583b8 | Location : Feni District, Bangladesh | Date of Incident : Thu, 7 August, 2025

Case ID : 99583b8

Feni District, Bangladesh

7 August, 2025

Hindu woman assaulted and raped by two Muslim men amidst the ongoing persecution of Hindus in Bangladesh

Undecided cases

Rape or sexual harassment/assault of a Hindu woman

Attacks against Hindus in Muslim majority nations

Case Summary

In the Sonagazi area of Feni district, Bangladesh, a 49-year-old Hindu woman was assaulted and raped by two Muslim men associated with the NCP. According to the FIR, the victim stated that the two men broke into her house while she was alone. She later identified them as Rakibul Islam, alias Sohag, and his younger brother Monowarul Islam, alias Shimul. After entering, they threatened her with a knife, tied her hands, feet, and mouth, and physically assaulted her. The victim stated that Sohag then raped her, recognising him by his voice and abusive language, while she identified Shimul by the cold touch of his hand, as she used to tutor him privately several years ago. The accused also stole a pair of gold earrings weighing two ana, a Nokia button phone, an old smartphone, and 3,000 taka in cash. The Officer-in-Charge of Sonagazi Model Police Station, Bayezid Akon, confirmed the incident, stating that both accused were arrested and subsequently sent to court. The family of the accused declined to comment on the matter. This incident is one of the several incidents of the continued persecution of Hindus in Bangladesh, which has only increased manifold since the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government on August 5, 2024. After her violent ouster, Bangladesh plunged into chaos as Islamist extremists took 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. Reports have exposed how Muslim students forced around 60 Hindu teachers, professors, and government officials to resign. Exiled Bangladeshi activist Asad Noor has also revealed that the minority Hindu community is now being coerced into joining ‘Jamaat-e-Islami’. Hindu religious events have been repeatedly targeted. On 6th September, a procession carrying Lord Ganesha’s idol was attacked in Chittagong. Ahead of Durga Puja, multiple incidents of idol vandalism occurred, including attacks in Mymensingh, Pabna, Rajshahi, Kishoreganj, and Dhaka. On 29th November, a violent Muslim mob attacked three temples in Patharghata, Chittagong, immediately after Jumma Namaz. The crackdown on Hindu voices has also escalated. On 30th November, Hindu journalist Munni Saha was arrested in Dhaka. Muslim mob attacks have increased in Bangladesh. For example, on 22nd May 2025, a Muslim mob carried out arson attacks selectively on Hindu homes in Dahar Mashihati village in Abhaynagar upazila in Jessore district of Bangladesh. Even ISKCON leader Chinmoy Krishna Das Prabhu and his aides have been targeted, and attempts have been made to ban ISKCON and suppress Hindu protests through sedition charges. These arbitrary actions point to a systematic pattern of persecution of Hindus under Muhammad Yunus’s interim government.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been categorised under the ‘Undecided’ database in the Hinduphobia Tracker due to a lack of conclusive evidence regarding a religious motive behind the crime. This could very well be a crime motivated by religious profiling, as the accused would already have known the religious identity of the victim, since she was Shimul's private tutor. Taking the broader context into consideration, in a Muslim-majority country like Bangladesh, where the Hindu minority has historically faced systemic persecution and violent attacks, this could suggest that the assault was a religiously motivated hate crime. Furthermore, this trend has intensified significantly following the ousting of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on 5th August 2024. Since her removal, there has been a marked surge in violence against the Hindu community, including reports of rapes, forced conversions, mob lynchings, assaults, temple desecrations, and the displacement of Hindus from their ancestral properties. However, it is also possible that the crime was one of opportunity, where the Hindu woman was simply accessible, or the accused knew that she was alone at home. At present, this remains highly speculative, as the case details provide no clear indication of religious motivations. Furthermore, the victim and her family members have not made any statements suggesting a religious motive behind the crime. For this reason, this case has been added to the 'Undecided' database. If further information emerges that hints towards a religious motivation behind this crime, then it would be reclassified and included under the Hate Crime database.