Hindus Unsafe In Bangladesh, Need Separate Voting Booths: Minority Bodies To Poll Panel

Last Updated:January 13, 2026, 11:37 IST

Representatives of the Sabha of Dhakeshwari Mandir, the largest Hindu body in the country, met election officials to raise serious concerns about the safety of Hindu voters.

Amid Killings, Bangladesh Hindu Body Says Community Too Unsafe to Vote

A leading Hindu organisation in Bangladesh has told the Election Commission (EC) that Hindus do not feel safe enough to vote under current conditions. Representatives of Dhakeshwari Hindu Sabha organisation and Hindu Christian Buddhist Unity Council, the largest Hindu body in the country, met election officials to raise serious concerns about the safety of Hindu voters.

The group said Hindus should be given additional security if they are expected to take part in elections. It also asked for separate polling booths with special arrangements to ensure safe voting. The demand comes amid a series of violent attacks and killings of Hindus across Bangladesh.

Call for special security and separate booths

During the meeting with the Election Commission, the Hindu organisation said fear among the community was growing. It stressed that many Hindus were reluctant to vote because of threats and repeated attacks.

The body urged the authorities to put in place strong security measures, especially in areas where violence against minorities has been reported. It said separate booths could help reduce fear and prevent attacks during voting.

Bangladesh’s parliamentary election is scheduled for February 12 this year.

Fresh killing in Chittagong

The appeal to the EC follows another killing of a Hindu man in Bangladesh. On Sunday evening, 28-year-old Samir Das was beaten and stabbed to death in Daganbhuiyan in the Chittagong region. Das worked as an auto driver.

According to journalist Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, a group of attackers thrashed and stabbed him before fleeing the scene with his battery-operated auto-rickshaw. Samir Das was the eldest son of Kartik Kumar Das and Rina Rani Das.

Series of attacks on Hindus

This killing is the latest in a series of attacks on Hindu minorities in Bangladesh. Violence increased after protests erupted following the death of July uprising organiser Sharif Osman Hadi in Singapore.

Prolay Chaki, a musician and cultural affairs secretary of the Awami League’s Pabna district unit, died in prison on Sunday night after reportedly suffering a heart attack. He had been arrested in a case linked to an alleged attack on the anti-discrimination student movement. Supporters of the Awami League claimed the charges were false.

Last week, a Hindu man identified as Joy Mahapatro was allegedly beaten and later poisoned by a local Muslim named Amirul Islam.

Mob violence and lynchings

Several other incidents have been reported in recent days. A 25-year-old Hindu man, Mithun Sarkar, died after jumping into a canal while trying to escape a mob that accused him of theft.

In Jessore district, Rana Pratap Bairagi, a Hindu businessman and acting newspaper editor, was shot dead on Monday. On the same day, a Hindu grocery shop owner, Sarat Mani Chakraborty, also died.

In another incident, a Hindu woman was allegedly gang-raped, tied to a tree, and had her hair cut off. Earlier, Dipu Chandra Das was lynched and burnt to death over alleged blasphemy in Mymensingh. Amrit Mondal was lynched over extortion allegations, while Bajendra Biswas, a Hindu garment factory worker, was shot dead in the same region.

India reacts

BJP IT Cell head Amit Malviya has condemned the repeated attacks on Hindus and other minorities in Bangladesh, following the killing of 28-year-old Samir Kumar Das in Feni on January 11. 

In a post on X, Malviya said Das was brutally murdered and his autorickshaw looted, calling it part of a pattern of persecution under the interim Yunus regime. 

He alleged that the government had failed to protect minorities and had dismissed such attacks as “fiction". Malviya also warned Hindus in West Bengal that if Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee returns to power in 2026, the situation could mirror Bangladesh. 

Veteran journalist and government adviser Kanchan Gupta echoed the criticism, slamming the silence of Western countries and the Yunus administration over the killings of Hindus in Bangladesh.

“No end to targeted attacks on Hindus: Young Hindu killed in Bangladesh; Yunus Regime silent. Human Rights Wallahs in Europe, US look other way. In yet another targeted attack on the Hindu community of Bangladesh, another Hindu man, 28-year-old Samir Kumar Das, has been killed in Bangladesh on January 11 at Dagonbhuiyan, Feni. The killers took away his autorickshaw, his source of livelihood. The murder shows there is no end in sight to the plight of Hindus in Bangladesh who have been pushed to the edge of despair ever since the advent of the US Deep State-backed illegal Yunus Regime in 2023. Yunus has neither made any effort to control the tormentors of Hindus and other religious minorities including Christians and Buddhists, nor has he bothered to offer a word of solace. Instead he has described the targeted attacks as ‘fiction’," reads his post on X.

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