Hindu family attacked and evicted from their ancestral house in Bangladesh
Rangpur District, Bangladesh 
19 February, 2025
Case Summary
In Haripur village under the Mithapukur Upazila of Rangpur district in Bangladesh, a Hindu family of a man named Praful Saha was attacked by Muslims and was evicted from their ancestral home. The Hindu family was beaten and thrown out of their ancestral home. The family tried to reach out to the police but the police refused to help. The Hindu family was troubled by this and held a press conference explaining their plight. A Bangladeshi TV channel covered this entire press conference. A small clip of the press conference was posted on the X app by an X handle named 'HinduVoice_in'. This incident reflects the wave of persecution that minority Hindus have been enduring since the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government on August 5, 2024. Bangladesh 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. Several temples have been destroyed in various parts of the Islamic country in a major crackdown on Hindus. Further, the arrest of Hindu priests has exacerbated the situation, with Hindu minorities protesting across Bangladesh seeking justice.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under the category- Attack not resulting in death. Within this, 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. The other sub-catgegory selected is- Attacked to induce migration from non-Hindu dominated area. There have been cases where the Hindus living in an area, often with a majority dwelling belonging to non-Hindus or those harbouring animosity towards the Hindu faith, the Hindu residents experience threats and violence. The violence is employed with the aim of making the Hindus leave the area and relocate, so the area could be turned into an exclusive ghetto for adherents of the non-Hindu faith or those who harbor animosity towards the Hindu faith. In several cases, the aim of exodus is explicit. However, in several cases, the demand for exodus of Hindu residents is not explicit, however, violence by non-Hindu residents leaves the Hindu residents no option but to leave the area, thereby, turning the area into an exclusive ghetto of non-Hindu residents. In such cases, there are instances violence against the Hindu residents explicitly. For example, in the Hauz Qazi case of 2019, the Muslim residents claimed that mob violence against the Hindu residents had been triggered by a parking dispute. However, the violence did turn religious with a temple being desecrated and was directed specifically against the Hindu residents. The Hindu residents of the area were clear that the violence was religiously motivated and one of the motives was to affect an exodus of the Hindu residents. In such cases, even though the perpetrators have not explicitly expressed the aim of affecting exodus, the given circumstances and violence and precedent point to the intention of exodus and therefore would be categorized under this sub-category. Such crimes are religiously motivated and therefore are hate crimes. This case has been classified as a religiously motivated hate crime because the victim was targeted as part of a broader campaign where Hindus are singled out simply for belonging to their faith community. The violence is not incidental but tied directly to the effort to weaken the Hindu presence and dignity. It also falls under the category- attacked to induce migration from a Muslim dominated area, since the pattern of intimidation, violence, and humiliation is deliberately designed to make Hindu families feel unsafe in their ancestral homes, forcing them to flee and thereby accelerating demographic change in favour of the majority community. Even if it is assumed that the immediate trigger here was not explicitly religious, this case should still be understood within the wider framework, as it occurred in the backdrop of the 2024 ethnic cleansing of Hindus in Bangladesh, where crimes against Hindus are not isolated events but part of a broader campaign of persecution driven by religious identity. When an ethnic cleansing is underway, every crime committed against the targeted minority carries the weight of that larger reality. The dehumanisation of Hindus, coupled with the normalisation of hostility toward their faith, creates an environment in which violence, exploitation, and coercion are routinely inflicted on them specifically because of who they are. Even if in an individual instance there is no explicit invocation of religious slogans or markers, the underlying motive is still tied to the collective campaign against Hindus. The violence draws legitimacy and momentum from a social and political atmosphere where Hindus are treated as outsiders to be erased, converted, or subdued. In such a climate, abductions, rapes, killings, and threats cannot be dismissed as “ordinary crimes” because they are part of a systemic pattern that weaponises religious identity against a vulnerable minority.
Case Status
Unknown
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
Unknown
Perpetrators Gender
unknown
Sources 
