Hindu man brutally killed, his throat slit by unidentified men in Bangladesh amidst ongoing persecution of Hindus

Case ID : d326e41 | Location : Jessore District, Bangladesh | Date of Incident : Sun, 4 January, 2026

Case ID : d326e41

Jessore District, Bangladesh

4 January, 2026

Hindu man brutally killed, his throat slit by unidentified men in Bangladesh amidst ongoing persecution of Hindus

Attack resulting in death

Attacked for Hindu identity

Case Summary

A Hindu businessman and acting newspaper editor, Rana Pratap Bairagi, was shot dead by three unidentified assailants on 5 January 2026 in the Keshabpur area of Jessore district in Bangladesh. The attackers also slit the Hindu victim's throat. According to media reports, Bairagi, aged 38, a resident of Arua village in Keshabpur, owned an ice-making factory in Kopaliya Bazar, Monirampur, and served as the acting editor of the newspaper Dainik BD Khabar, published from Narail. Police stated that the incident occurred around 5:45 pm at Kapalia Bazar when three men on a motorcycle lured Bairagi from his factory to an alley, where he was shot at close range. Monirampur Police Station Officer-in-Charge, Md. Rajiullah Khan said, “He was shot three times in the head, and his throat was slit. He died instantly.” Police claimed that the motive for the killing may have been linked to an internal feud within the banned Purbo Banglar Communist Party, of which Bairagi was an active member. Following this, police launched an investigation to identify the perpetrators and establish the motive for the murder. Police also claimed that four cases were registered against the deceased in two police stations. Details of these cases were not disclosed. A fresh wave of anti-Hindu violence prevailed across Bangladesh following the death of Sharif Osman Bin Hadi. This escalation occurred against the backdrop of ongoing anti-Hindu violence that had persisted since the ouster of the Sheikh Hasina government in August 2024, during which Hindu homes, temples, and religious spaces were repeatedly attacked, and the Hindu community faced intimidation, arson, and mob attacks. In the aftermath of Hadi’s death, Hindu homes were selectively targeted and set ablaze in multiple localities by Muslim mobs, forcing families to flee and rendering many homeless. The violence was not sporadic but patterned, with Muslim mobs targeting Hindu neighbourhoods, properties, and religious symbols with impunity. One of the many victims of this wave of violence was a Hindu man named Dipu Chandra Das, who was brutally lynched by a Muslim mob over false allegations of blasphemy. Such targeting of innocent Hindus over fabricated charges illustrated the vulnerability of the Hindu minority under conditions of rising communal hostility. Posters and written materials calling for the extermination of Hindus were displayed in public spaces, signalling an alarming normalisation of genocidal rhetoric. Combined with acts of physical violence, arson, and vandalism, these developments demonstrated a coordinated campaign designed to terrorise the Hindu community and assert Islamic dominance. Notably, Sharif Osman Bin Hadi was a Muslim political activist and student leader known for his anti-Hindu and anti-India stance. He was actively involved in the political unrest that followed the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s government and was killed in Dhaka in December 2025 during clashes, after which Hindus were blamed and subsequently targeted.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category- Attack resulting in Death. The subcategory 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 stands as a clear instance of religiously motivated crime, as the Hindu victim was brutally murdered, his throat was slit by unknown men in Bangladesh, amidst the ongoing religious persecution of Hindus in the country. This incident reflects deep-seated hatred tied to the victim's faith in a nation gripped by anti-Hindu hostility. While some may argue that the case details do not explicitly indicate a religious motive. However, the broader context of anti-Hindu persecution in Bangladesh 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 a 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 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 and the subsequent ongoing persecution following the death of Osman Hadi, the Hinduphobia Tracker assumes religious motivation from the outset. If any case is proven beyond a reasonable doubt to stem from motivations other than religious hostility, it will be removed from the hate crime database post-facto. In this case, the severity of the brutal murder, where three unknown perpetrators shot the Hindu victim and then slit his throat, reveals clear communal motives behind the attack. This deliberate savagery selectively targeted him for his Hindu identity amidst the ongoing persecution of Hindus. Such faith-based violence exemplifies a religiously motivated crime, where Hindus face extreme brutality solely for their religious existence. Notably, this murder occurred just days after a Hindu man, Dipu Chandra Das, fell victim to a brutal killing by a Muslim mob in Bhaluka town, Bangladesh, on 18 December 2025, over a false blasphemy allegation against Islam. This repeated pattern of attacks on Hindus shows that the present case forms part of the same cycle, where Hindus are targeted and subjected to religiously motivated violence. In this case, even though the perpetrators' identities remain unknown, the religiously motivated nature of the crime is clearly evident. Henceforth, this case is being added to the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker.