Amid the ongoing persecution of Hindus in Bangladesh, another Hindu youth has been murdered. On the 6th of January, 28-year-old Sudeb Halder, son of Subrata Halder of Betora village in Sadar upazila, was found hacked to death in the Rampur Jorapol area of Nabagram Union of Sadar Upazila. He owned a mobile phone shop in the local Baukathi market. Sudeb was the youngest of two brothers and two sisters.
According to the police, Sudeb was travelling back home after closing his shop where he was indiscriminately stabbed by ‘miscreants’. On the 7th of January, the locals and his family found his hacked body lying in a crop field one kilometre away from his home and informed the police. Jhalakathi Superintendent of Police Ujjwal Kumar Roy said, “A blow to the head was found. It is believed to be a murder. The body will be sent to Jhalakathi Sadar Hospital morgue for an autopsy. A murder case will be filed in this regard.” The police also said that Sudeb was stabbed multiple times and had deep wounds on his head and neck.
Sudeb’s father, Subodh Halder, said, “My son has no enemies. I don’t understand who killed my son and why. I want the police to uncover the truth and ensure that the killers are brought to justice.”
Amid the ongoing persecution of Hindus in Bangladesh, the murder of Sudeb has raised an uproar yet again. Bangabandhu Prakasholi Parishad Secretary Sushanta Dasgupta said, “Every day, murders are happening in Bangladesh, somewhere or the other. We have investigated and found that Sudev Haldar, who was killed, had no personal enmity with anyone. We believe that he was killed only because he was a Hindu. By killing Hindus in this way, a message is being sent that this Bangladesh does not belong to Hindus. He was killed to scare Hindus into leaving Bangladesh.”
Sudeb’s brother said that since childhood, he was living in Kolkata with his uncles and it was only during the COVID pandemic that he went back to Bangladesh to open his own mobile shop. He has claimed that it is possible that he was hacked to death after an argument with some people about mobile repair at his shop.
Attack on Hindus in Bangladesh since the fall of Dhaka
OpIndia has been vetting and reporting cases of atrocities on Hindus since the ouster of Sheikh Hasina on 5th August 2024.
There were at least 205 attacks on Hindu temples, shops and businesses within 3 days of the fall of Dhaka.
We previously exposed how Muslim students have forced as many as 60 Hindu teachers, professors and government officials to resign from their positions.
Human rights activist and exiled Bangladeshi blogger, Asad Noor, has recently revealed that the minority community is now being coerced into joining ‘Jamaat-e-Islami’.
On 6th September 2024, a procession of Hindu devotees carrying the idol of Lord Ganesha came under attack in the Kadam Mubarak area in Chittagong city of Bangladesh.
Ahead of the Durga Puja celebrations, a radical Muslim man named Yasin Mia vandalised the idols of Goddess Durga and other Hindu deities in Gouripur town in the Mymensingh district of Bangladesh on 25th September.
In another series of attacks, idols of Goddess Durga and other Hindu deities were vandalised at the Rishipara Barwari Puja Mandap and the Manikadi Palpara Barwari Pujamandap on 28th September and 1st October respectively.
The attacks were carried out in Sujanagar upazila in Pabna district in Rajshahi Division of Bangladesh. While a total of 4 idols were defaced at the Rishipara Barwari Puja Mandap, another 5 Hindu idols were destroyed at the Manikadi Palpara Barwari Pujamandap.
On 3rd October, 7 idols of Hindu deities were destroyed at the Gopinath Jiur Akhara Durga Puja mandap in Kishoreganj, Dhaka Division, Bangladesh.
On 5th November, the Hindu community came under attack from police and law enforcement authorities in Hazari Goli in Chittagong city of Bangladesh.
On 29th November, a violent Muslim mob attacked Hindu minorities and vandalised 3 temples in Patharghata in Chittagong district of Bangladesh.
The Hindu religious sites that the Muslims targeted included the Shantaneshwari Matri Temple, the Shoni Temple, and Shantaneshwari Kalibari Temple. The attack took place immediately after the conclusion of Jumma Namaz.
On 30th November, a prominent Hindu journalist named Munni Saha was arrested by the police from Karwan Bazar in Dhaka city of Bangladesh.
A group of extremists attacked the Mahashmashan Kali Mata Mandir, vandalised 7 idols of deities and stole gold ornaments on 13th December 2024.
On 19th December, a Muslim man identified as Alal Uddin vandalised an idol at the Polashkanda Kali Temple and then attempted to create a fake alibi. The incident occurred in Haluaghat upazila in the Mymensingh district of Bangladesh.
Another 37-year-old Muslim man identified as Azharul vandalised several idols of deities in Haluaghat Upazila in the Mymensingh district of Bangladesh.
The recent arrest of Chinmoy Krishna Das Prabhu and his aides, attempts at banning Hindu organisation ISKCON and stifling Hindu protests with cases of ‘sedition’ highlight systematic persecution under the interim government of Muhammad Yunus.
There have been multiple instances of attacks on Hindus under the pretext of ‘blasphemy.’ The recent cases of Hridoy Pal, Utsab Mandal, Partha Biswas Pintu, Akash Das, Pranta Talukder and Utsab Kumar Gian are shining examples of targeted persecution.
So far, there have been many attempts to downplay violence against Hindus as ‘fake‘, ‘exaggerated‘ or ‘politically motivated‘.