Hindu man brutally killed by Muslims for refusing to pay 'jizya' in Bangladesh amidst ongoing persecution of Hindus

Case ID : d326e4f | Location : Dhaka Division, Bangladesh | Date of Incident : Sun, 4 January, 2026

Case ID : d326e4f

Dhaka Division, Bangladesh

4 January, 2026

Hindu man brutally killed by Muslims for refusing to pay 'jizya' in Bangladesh amidst ongoing persecution of Hindus

Attack resulting in death

Attacked for Hindu identity

Case Summary

In Narsingdi district, Dhaka Division, Bangladesh, a Hindu man named Sarat Mani Chakraborty was brutally murdered by Muslim assailants on 5 January 2026. He was killed for refusing to pay jizya, an Islamically sanctioned protection tax imposed on non-Muslims in a Muslim country. The attackers had relentlessly pressured Sarat to pay it if he and his family wished to live in Bangladesh; otherwise, they threatened to kill him. Notably, Jizya is a historical tax levied on non-Muslim subjects (dhimmis) living under Islamic rule, as referenced in Islamic scriptures, serving as a financial obligation in exchange for protection. This tax, collected annually from non-Muslims, symbolises their subordinate status as compared to Muslims. According to media reports, the deceased victim ran a grocery store as a shopkeeper. His shop stood at Charsindur Bazaar in Palash Upazila (sub-district) of Narsingdi, on the outskirts of Dhaka. On the day of the incident, while he was running his shop, the attackers assaulted him with sharp weapons. He died while being transported to the hospital. Authorities confirmed that an investigation was underway. A police officer said, “We are investigating who was involved.” Reports also confirmed that Sarat was survived by his wife, Antara Mukherjee, and his 12-year-old son, Abhik Chakraborty. According to Hindu activist Bappaditya Basu, Sarat’s family revealed that he had been threatened days before his murder. Local Muslims demanded a large sum of money, telling him that if he wished to continue living in Bangladesh as a Hindu, he would have to pay jizya. They also threatened that if he went to the police, his wife would be abducted. If he resisted, they threatened to kill him. 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 with sharp weapons by Muslims in Bangladesh for refusing to pay jizya. This occurred amidst the ongoing religious persecution of Hindus in the country, reflecting deep-seated hatred tied to the victim's faith in a nation gripped by anti-Hindu hostility. Notably, jizya is a historical tax levied on non-Muslim subjects (dhimmis) living under Islamic rule, as referenced in Islamic scriptures, serving as a financial obligation in exchange for protection. This tax, collected annually from non-Muslims, symbolises their subordinate status, often involving ritual humiliation during payment, such as handing it over "by hand" while humbled. It oppresses non-Muslims by treating them as second-class citizens, imposing a discriminatory protection levy that reinforces inequality and vulnerability compared to Muslims who pay zakat (tax paid by Muslims) instead. In this current case, the victim's brutal murder had a backdrop of relentless pressure from the Muslim perpetrators, who demanded that he and his family pay this extortion (Jizya) or leave Bangladesh, explicitly tying their demands to his Hindu faith, along with threats of death or his wife's abduction if he sought police help. This targeted persecution, devoid of any personal conflict, reveals the Muslim assailants' deep-seated religious hatred and their intent to enforce Islamic principles over vulnerable Hindus. Sarat's killing exposes the harsh reality of Hindus as second-class citizens in Bangladesh, where minority Hindu faith becomes a death sentence. The act of forcing the Hindu man to pay jizya showcases that the Muslim attackers sought to humiliate and subjugate him for his religious identity, underscoring the profound vulnerability of the Hindu community amidst such religiously fuelled aggression. By murdering Sarat for his defiance, the perpetrators sent a chilling message of Islamic supremacy, proving this was no random act but a deliberate hate crime driven by bigotry against his Hindu identity. Attacking and killing a Hindu man simply for being Hindu exposes the perpetrators' deep-seated animosity towards the Hindu community. In such instances, Hindus face targeting and murder solely for being Hindu. Their religious identity alone subjects them to violent attacks and brutal killings, marking it as a clear case of religiously motivated crime, driven by anti-Hindu hatred. It is also important to highlight that this murder occurred just days after a Hindu man, Dipu Chandra Das, was brutally killed and his body set ablaze 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 followed the murder of Osman Hadi, an anti-Hindu and anti-India activist. Since his death, the Hinduphobia Tracker has recorded at least 23 cases of targeted attacks on Hindus, their homes, shops, and temples by Muslim mobs in Bangladesh, between 18 December 2025 and 6 January 2026. All this pattern of past instances and the current instance showcases that this is a clear case of a religiously motivated hate crime. Henceforth, this case is being added to the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker. Note: To read more about the persecution of Hindus in Bangladesh, visit our website: www.hinduphobiatracker.org.