Hindu soldier in Bangladesh Army found hanging in mysterious condition, local Hindus suspect foul play

Case ID : ea3492d | Location : Dhaka, Dhaka District, Bangladesh | Date of Incident : Sun, 20 April, 2025

Case ID : ea3492d

Dhaka, Dhaka District, Bangladesh

20 April, 2025

Hindu soldier in Bangladesh Army found hanging in mysterious condition, local Hindus suspect foul play

Attack resulting in death

Attacked for Hindu identity

Case Summary

The body of Durjoy Shil, a Hindu member of the Bangladesh Armed Forces, was found hanging from a ceiling fan inside the Banani Cantonment in Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh. The discovery has triggered a wave of concern and outrage within the Hindu community. According to reports, the Hindu soldier was discovered in a suspicious state, dressed in uniform and found standing beneath a ceiling fan with a loosely tied rope around his neck. The circumstances suggest a staged suicide, leading many within the local Hindu community to suspect foul play. Some social media handles said that his family members alleged that he was being pressured by his company commander, Nurul Islam, to either quit his job or convert to Islam. This incident has once again highlighted the growing concerns surrounding the treatment of religious minorities within the armed forces and has raised serious questions about systemic discrimination against Hindus within the institution. While officially considered a suicide, the circumstances leading up to his death strongly suggest that he was driven to this tragic end by targeted psychological and religious persecution. Concerns have intensified further with allegations that the current head of Bangladesh’s intelligence agency maintains close affiliations with Jamaat-e-Islami, a political organization known for its extremist Islamic ideology and controversial legacy. These connections have heightened fears of systemic bias against Hindu minorities and possible complicity at higher levels of governance.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category of- Attack resulting in death, and within this, the sub-category selected is- Attack 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, it has been alleged by the family of the deceased Hindu soldier that he was under intense pressure from his company commander, Nurul Islam, who reportedly coerced him to either resign from his post or convert to Islam—a pressure they believe ultimately led to his death. While mainstream media reports have not highlighted this aspect, they do point to suspicious circumstances suggesting the suicide may have been staged. Although the currently available details do not conclusively establish a religious motive, the wider context of the treatment of Hindus in Bangladesh raises serious concerns that cannot be overlooked. 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. For the purpose of documenting 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 post-facto be removed from the hate crime database.