Hindu businessman murdered amidst ongoing persecution of Hindus in Bangladesh

Case ID : b1c5c93 | Location : Netrokona District, Bangladesh | Date of Incident : Sun, 5 October, 2025

Case ID : b1c5c93

Netrokona District, Bangladesh

5 October, 2025

Hindu businessman murdered amidst ongoing persecution of Hindus in Bangladesh

Attack resulting in death

Attacked for Hindu identity

Case Summary

A Hindu businessman named Narayan Pal, aged 40, was murdered in Mohanganj, Netrokona, Bangladesh, late on the night of October 6, 2025. Narayan, son of Nripendra Pal from Rautpara in Mohanganj Municipality, owned a well-known grocery shop called “Narayan Store” at Thana Mor. Around 11:15 PM, locals found his body inside the shop with his throat slit. Police recovered the body and sent it for autopsy at Netrokona Sadar Hospital. Eyewitnesses reported that the murder occurred just 150 yards from the local police station, raising serious concerns about security in the area. Officer-in-Charge Aminul Islam stated that the inquest report had been prepared and that authorities were reviewing CCTV footage from nearby establishments to identify the perpetrators. This murder has caused widespread outrage among locals and community leaders, who demanded a thorough investigation and stronger protection for vulnerable religious minorities in Bangladesh. Reports indicate that attacks on Hindu individuals and communities have increased sharply following the political upheaval after the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s government on 5 August 2024. Hindu homes have been attacked and burned, temples vandalized, women abducted, and minority voices suppressed, including journalists and teachers. Specific incidents cited include attacks on religious processions, desecration of idols, arson on Hindu homes in Dahar Mashihati village, and targeted threats against ISKCON leaders. The cumulative pattern highlights systematic persecution of the Hindu community amid escalating law-and-order failures. 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 under Muhammad Yunus’s interim government.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

The primary category in this case is: Attack resulting in death. The subcategory under this 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 Hinduphobia Tracker because it exemplifies the systematic targeting of Hindus in Bangladesh, particularly amid the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Hindu communities following the political upheaval after 5 August 2024. Although the immediate details of Narayan Pal’s murder do not explicitly cite a religious declaration by the perpetrators, the broader context of sustained violence against Hindus provides sufficient grounds to categorise it as a hate crime. The victim, a Hindu businessman, was killed in close proximity to a police station, yet the attack was carried out with impunity, reflecting the vulnerability of Hindus in the area and the deliberate targeting of individuals based on their religious identity. Hindus in Bangladesh have faced escalating threats, including arson attacks on homes, desecration of temples, abduction of women, and harassment of Hindu educators and journalists. The systematic pattern of these attacks demonstrates a consistent effort to intimidate, suppress, and terrorise the Hindu minority. In this environment, even crimes that might appear opportunistic or personal are inseparable from the wider strategy of religious persecution. The murder of Narayan Pal, therefore, must be interpreted not merely as an isolated criminal act but as part of a continuum of violence driven by anti-Hindu animosity. By categorising this case under “Attack resulting in death” with the subcategory “Attacked for Hindu identity,” the Tracker recognises that the victim’s Hindu identity made him a target. The absence of explicit religious markers in the immediate crime does not diminish the religiously motivated nature of the attack, as ongoing ethnic cleansing and systemic hostility against Hindus render all such acts inseparable from the broader campaign of persecution. If such an incident had occurred elsewhere, it might have been placed 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. While the available details do not explicitly indicate a religious motive, it must be viewed within the broader context of targeted violence intended to unsettle Hindu populations in regions where they constitute a vulnerable minority. 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 drive 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 a reasonable doubt proven to be driven by motivations other than religious hostility, it will post-facto be removed from the hate crime database.