Minor Hindu girl abducted by a Muslim man associated with Jamaat-e-Islami

Case ID : e899561 | Location : Habiganj District, Bangladesh | Date of Incident : Thu, 29 May, 2025

Case ID : e899561

Habiganj District, Bangladesh

29 May, 2025

Minor Hindu girl abducted by a Muslim man associated with Jamaat-e-Islami

Attack not resulting in death

Attacked for Hindu identity

Case Summary

In Subidpur village of the Habibganj district in Bangladesh, a minor Hindu girl named Monpriya Sarkar, a Hindu minor girl was forcibly abducted by a local Muslim man, associated with Jamaat-e-Islami. Furthermore, the victim tried to approach authorities but received no help from them as well. This case highlights the ongoing hatred, intolerance, violence, and bigotry faced by the Hindus in Bangladesh at the hands of the majority Muslim population. The level of hostility and religious intolerance against Hindus in Bangladesh continues to escalate, with such abductions and attacks becoming alarmingly frequent, especially since the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government on August 5, 2024. Since then, Bangladesh has plunged into chaos as Islamist extremists have taken advantage of the political turmoil to unleash a wave of terror and violence against the Hindu community. The Islamist mobs have attacked Hindu homes, burned them to the ground, and abducted women in a horrific descent into anarchy. The lack of prompt action by the police further emboldens the perpetrators which creates an atmosphere of fear and insecurity among Hindus in Bangladesh.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category of: - Attack not resulting in death. Within it, 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. 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 drives the crimes committed against them, even when there is a lack of stated religious motive. To document the 2024 ethnic cleansing of Hindus in Bangladesh, the Hinduphobia Tracker is assuming religious motivation ab initio. If a case is specifically and beyond reasonable doubt proven to be driven by motivations other than religious hostility, it will be removed from the hate crime database post-facto. This case has been added to the tracker because of the hostile and anti-minority environment that continues to exist in Bangladesh. Religious minorities, especially Hindus, are often treated with contempt and hatred, and this has only intensified after the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s regime. In the political vacuum that followed, there has been a noticeable increase in anti-Hindu violence across the country. This case needs to be seen in that context, as part of a broader pattern of rising religious intolerance and targeted hate. Even in this case, a minor Hindu girl, Monpriya Sarkar, was abducted by a Muslim man affiliated with Jamaat-e-Islami. Jamaat-e-Islami has a long history of targeting Hindus through violence, intimidation, and coercion. This incident reflects a recurring strategy by the Muslims in an attempt to instil fear and assert religious dominance, especially over vulnerable Hindu communities. Reports and human rights documentation consistently highlight how Hindu women are especially vulnerable to such attacks, often with little to no intervention from authorities, and how these crimes are frequently facilitated or ignored by local institutions, including the police.