Hindu man's business looted by armed Bangladeshi Muslim mob; casteist abuses hurled

Case ID : b45f362 | Location : Faridpur District, Bangladesh | Date of Incident : Tue, 6 August, 2024
Case ID : b45f362
location Faridpur District, Bangladesh
date 6 August, 2024
Hindu man's business looted by armed Bangladeshi Muslim mob; casteist abuses hurled
Hate speech against Hindus
Violent threats
Anti-Hindu slurs, mocking faith
Attack not resulting in death
Attacked for Hindu identity

Case Summary

Since the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government on August 5, 2024, the Hindu minority community in Bangladesh has been targeted and several temples have been destroyed in the area in a major crackdown on Hindus. Further, the arrest of three Hindu priests has exacerbated the situation with Hindu minorities protesting across Bangladesh seeking justice. Amid, this ethnic cleansing, Swapan Pal and his wife, owners of AS Bricks Company in the Komorpur village in Bangladesh's Faridpur District, faced a devastating series of events involving theft, threats, and vandalism. Despite halting brick production in 2021, they retained over 500,000 old bricks in stock and also operated a fishery. Mukul Sheikh, responsible for managing brick sales and worker wages, embezzled approximately 6,43,000 taka belonging to the company, aided by influential individuals Mohammad Zakaria and Molla Palash. When Pal's wife protested the fraudulent activities, they threatened to kill Swapan Pal and seize the company. No one in the locality had the courage to speak up. The situation escalated when Zakaria and Palash, accompanied by 10-12 armed men, stormed the brick factory and fishery. They assaulted on-duty manager Niranjan Kumar Das, dragging him in front of a neighbouring shop, where they brutally beat him, hurled caste-based slurs like "Malaun" and "Shuorer Baccha," and threatened to kill him if he returned to the premises. They also demanded that he leave for Bharat. Niranjan narrowly escaped and required hospitalization. On August 8th, a mob of 40-50 armed goons led by Zakaria, Palash, and his brother Mohd. Al Helal Molla and Golam K. Russel looted approximately 60,000 bricks worth around 7 lakh taka using trucks and other vehicles. Additionally, they plundered fish worth over 5 lakh taka from the fishery. When Swapan Pal managed to access the office on August 14th, he discovered that company-related documents, account books, cheques, stamps, land deeds, and 80,000 taka in cash had been stolen from the almirah. This organised assault left the business devastated and the owners facing immense threats to their safety and livelihood.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added as a religiously motivated hate crime under the prime category- Hate speech against Hindus, of the database. Under this, the first sub-category selected is- Anti-Hindu slurs, mocking faith. Anti-Hindu slurs and the deliberate mocking of the Hindu faith owing to religious animosity involve the usage of derogatory terms, stereotypes, or offensive references to religious practices, symbols, or figures. One of the common anti-Hindu slurs used against Hindus is “cow-worshipper” and “cow piss drinker”. The intention of using this term is to demean and mock Hindus as a group and their religious beliefs since Hindus consider the cow holy. Additionally, some symbols and the slurs attached to them have a historical context that exacerbates the insult, hate, stereotyping, dehumanisation and oppression against Hindus. Cow worship has been used for centuries to denigrate Hindus, insult their faith and oppress Hindus specifically as a religious group. There has been overwhelming documentation about how cow slaughter has been used to persecute Hindus with cow meat being thrown in temples and places of worship. There has also been overwhelming documentation where cow meat (beef) has been force-fed to Hindus to either forcefully convert them to Islam or denigrate their faith. Apart from cow worship, the Swastika – which holds deep religious significance for the Hindus – has also been misinterpreted and distorted to use as a slur against Hindus. Similarly, the worship of the Shivling has been used by supremacist ideologies and religions to denigrate Hindus owing to religious animosity. Such slurs and denigration stem out of inherent animosity and hate towards Hindus and their faith, therefore, it is categorised as hate speech targeted at Hindus specifically owing to their religious identity. The second sub-category selected under the above-mentioned prime category is- Violent threats. Violent threats, explicit, implicit or implied, is the most dangerous form of hate speech since it goes beyond discriminatory and prejudicial language to express the intent of causing harm to an individual or a group of people based on their religious identity and faith. There could be several different kinds of threats that are issued to Hindus based on religious animosity. An explicit threat would mean the direct threat of violence towards an individual Hindu, a group of Hindus or Hindus at large. Physical violence, death threats, threats of destruction of property belonging to Hindus and threats of genocide would mean explicit threats against Hindus for their religious identity. Implicit threats may not be a direct threat but implied through the use of symbols of actions – for example – in the Nupur Sharma case, other than explicit threats, there were also implicit threats when Islamists took to the streets to burn and beat her effigies. It implies that they want to do the same to Nupur Sharma – thereby is considered an implicit threat. Violent threats can be delivered in person, through letters, phone calls, graffiti, or increasingly through social media and other online platforms. It would be important to understand that a threat – explicit or implicit, online or offline – to an individual who happens to be a Hindu does not qualify as a religiously motivated threat. Such a threat, while vile and dangerous, could be owing to non-religious reasons and/or personal animosity. To qualify as a religiously motivated threat, it would need to exhibit an indication that the individual is being targeted for religious reasons and/or owing to his/her religious identity as a Hindu. The second prime category under which this case has been placed is- Attack not resulting in death, within which, 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. This case has been categorized as a religiously motivated hate crime under multiple prime categories in the database. The first prime category assigned is Hate speech against Hindus, reflecting the perpetrators' use of slurs and threats fueled by religious animosity. Under this category, the sub-category Anti-Hindu slurs, mocking faith highlights the derogatory terms such as "Malaun" and "Shuorer Baccha" used to demean and target the Hindu community, demonstrating an intent to denigrate their religious identity. Additionally, the sub-category Violent threats has been selected to emphasize the explicit death threats made against the victims, including demands to vacate the area and relocate to Bharat, as well as the threat to burn down the business if the victims resisted. The case has also been placed under a second prime category: Attack not resulting in death. Within this, the sub-category Attacked for Hindu identity underscores the targeted violence faced by the victims due to their religious affiliation. The brutal assault on the manager, Niranjan Kumar Das, and the threats against the business owners highlight the perpetrators' intent to intimidate and harm them solely because of their Hindu identity.

Victim Details

Total Victim

3

Deceased

0


Gender

  • Male 2
  • Female 1
  • Third Gender 0
  • Unknown 0

Caste

  • SC/ST 0
  • OBC 0
  • General 0
  • Unknown 3

Age Group

  • Minor 0
  • Adult 3
  • Senior Citizen 0
  • Unknown 0
Case Status Background
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Case Status


Unknown

Case Status Background
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Perpetrators Details

Perpetrators


Muslim Extremists

Perpetrators Range


From 10 to 100

Perpetrators Gender


male

Case Details SVG
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