Minor Hindu boy brutally killed by unidentified assailants in Feni amidst rising anti-Hindu attacks in Bangladesh

Case ID : d420e78 | Location : Feni District, Bangladesh | Date of Incident : Sat, 7 March, 2026

Case ID : d420e78

Feni District, Bangladesh

7 March, 2026

Minor Hindu boy brutally killed by unidentified assailants in Feni amidst rising anti-Hindu attacks in Bangladesh

Attack resulting in death

Attacked for Hindu identity

Case Summary

On the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway in the Lalpol area of Feni district, Bangladesh, a 16-year-old minor Hindu boy named Shanto Kumar Saha was brutally murdered by a few unidentified assailants. This incident occurred on the evening of 8 March 2026. Eyewitnesses and the victim's family stated that on the day of the incident, Shanto was seen loading a passenger's luggage into his autorickshaw in front of the Miyaji filling station in Lalpol. Half an hour later, unknown assailants attacked him, beat him, and threw him under a culvert on the side of the highway while attempting to rob him. When Shanto got up and chased the robbers, they pushed him onto the highway, where he was hit by a moving vehicle and died instantly. Feni Additional Superintendent of Police Nishat Tabassum confirmed the incident, stating, "Upon receiving information, police recovered the body from the spot and sent it to the Feni General Hospital mortuary." Shanto's cousin, Nipul Das, said, "When his family could not contact him in the evening, they started searching for him. Later, after receiving information from a known auto-rickshaw driver, we went to the scene and found Shanto's body. If we look at CCTV footage from the area where he picked up passengers, we may be able to identify the assailants." Shanto's second cousin, Nipa Rani Das, said, "I met Shanto in front of Miyaji Filling Station just before Iftar. When I asked him to take me home, he said he had to pick up a passenger. He had some sacks in his autorickshaw at the time. I also saw a man standing next to him. I believe they took advantage of the calm atmosphere during Iftar to target Shanto and hijack the autorickshaw." A fresh wave of anti-Hindu violence followed the 13th National Parliamentary Election 2026 in Bangladesh, reinforcing a recurring pattern of post-poll violence targeting Hindu minorities. Within days of the announcement of results, Hindu families in districts such as Noakhali, Rangpur, Nilphamari, Sylhet, Thakurgaon, and Dinajpur reported coordinated attacks involving arson, looting, assault, and vandalism of temples and homes. In several instances, Hindu homes were selectively targeted, looted, and families were threatened with displacement. This escalation of violence against Hindus in Bangladesh unfolded in three distinct phases: first, following the ouster of Sheikh Hasina’s government in August 2024; second, after the death of Sharif Osman Bin Hadi in December 2025; and third, in the immediate aftermath of the 13th National Parliamentary Election 2026. This electoral violence unfolded against the broader backdrop of sustained anti-Hindu hostility that had persisted since the ouster of the Sheikh Hasina government in August 2024. During that period, multiple reports documented attacks on Hindu homes, temples, and religious institutions, alongside intimidation campaigns, arson, and mob assaults targeting minority neighbourhoods. The Hinduphobia tracker has recorded 336 such incidents against the Hindu minority, underscoring the scale and persistence of anti-Hindu violence during this period. A further escalation occurred following the death of Sharif Osman Bin Hadi, a Muslim political activist and student leader known for his anti-Hindu and anti-India rhetoric. Hadi had been involved in political unrest after the fall of the Hasina government and was killed in Dhaka on 18 December 2025 during clashes. In the aftermath of his death, Hindu communities were blamed and subsequently targeted in retaliatory violence. Hindu homes were selectively set ablaze in multiple localities, forcing families to flee and leaving many displaced. The attacks appeared patterned rather than sporadic, with Muslim mobs focusing on Hindu neighbourhoods, properties, and religious symbols. Among the victims was Dipu Chandra Das, who was lynched to death and his body was set ablaze by a Muslim mob over false blasphemy allegations. The Hinduphobia tracker documented 51 incidents of anti-Hindu violence in the period following Hadi’s death alone. Such incidents underscore the vulnerability of the Hindu minority amid rising communal hostility and the weaponisation of religious accusations. Reports further indicated that posters and written materials calling for the extermination of Hindus were displayed in public spaces, signalling an alarming normalisation of genocidal rhetoric. When combined with acts of arson, vandalism, assault, and targeted intimidation, these developments suggest a coordinated environment of hostility aimed at terrorising the Hindu community and reinforcing majoritarian dominance.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case is 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. In this case, a minor Hindu boy named 16-year-old Shanto Kumar Saha was brutally beaten during a robbery attempt on his autorickshaw near Miyaji Filling Station in Feni district, Bangladesh, then pushed onto the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway, where a vehicle struck him fatally. Hostility toward Hindus in Bangladesh has reached a level where even property crimes like autorickshaw hijackings frequently escalate into deadly outcomes when the victims are Hindu. Across multiple documented incidents, small triggers have resulted in arson, mob attacks, killings, and forced displacement of Hindu families, demonstrating a climate in which Hindu lives are treated as expendable by violent actors who operate with the belief that consequences will be minimal. While some may argue that the case details do not explicitly state a religious motive, the broader context of anti-Hindu persecution in Bangladesh remains relevant for classification. During periods of sustained violence against Hindus based on religious identity, the Hinduphobia Tracker applies a contextual presumption that attacks on Hindu victims are likely faith-targeted, even when the immediate report does not record a specific religious marker. In such periods, the normalisation of religious hostility and the dehumanisation of minorities can contribute to crimes against them without perpetrators openly stating a motive. For the purpose of documenting the 2024 to 2026 ethnic cleansing of Hindus in Bangladesh and the subsequent persecution after politicial exile of Sheikh Hasina, the death of Sharif Osman Hadi, and the 13th National Parliamentary Election 2026 in Bangladesh, Hinduphobia Tracker records such incidents as likely religiously motivated at the point of entry. If any case is later established through credible investigation or court findings to stem from motivations other than religious hostility, it will be revised or removed from the hate crime database. The killing of Shanto aligns with this entrenched pattern of anti-Hindu targeting. Hindu neighbourhoods have been repeatedly subjected to land encroachment, arson, and intimidation. Hindus have repeatedly been intimidated and killed for their faith identity. Amidst all this, when a minor Hindu boy is murdered merely for loading a passenger's luggage and chasing robbers, occurring just before Iftar, it underscores how minimal the threshold for lethal violence has become in attacks involving Hindu victims, amplifying psychological terror directed at the wider community. The extreme brutality of the assault, consistent with the severity observed in other attacks on Hindu victims during 2024–2026, supports classification as a religiously motivated crime. Therefore, this case is recorded in the Hinduphobia Tracker’s hate crime database.