Religious minorities in Bangladesh blame Islamist hardliners for recent violence

DHAKA, Bangladesh – Religious minorities in Bangladesh are coming together to denounce rough treatment they have received in the wake of national elections last month.

People belonging to minority religions and cultural groups have suffered intimidation, violent attacks, even torture and worse since the February 12 general elections in the majority-Muslim country of 80 million, in which Christians make up less than 1 percent of the population.

The elections were the first since a student-led uprising ousted a long-standing regime that had grown increasingly authoritarian over more than a decade of rule in Bangladesh, which – though overwhelmingly Muslim – is officially secular and guarantees religious liberty in its constitution.

On March 13, the Bangladesh Christian Association, Hindu Buddhist-Christian Unity Council and the Minority Unity Front held a protest rally in front of the National Press Club in the capital Dhaka, accusing hardline Islamists of stoking division.

“The hardline Islamist party sitting in the opposition party does not want Bangladesh to remain a secular country,” said James Subrata Hazra, International Affairs Secretary of the Bangladesh Christian Association, who spoke at the rally.

“Therefore,” he said, “they are continuing to try to create an unstable environment.”

Hazra called on the government to ensure the safety of religious minorities in the country and restore a fair environment.

“We feel that the way minorities are being persecuted is gradually making this country unfit for religious minorities,” Hazra – a Catholic – told Crux Now.

Leaders of the Minority Unity Front, a coalition of the Bangladesh Hindu, Buddhist, Christian and other religious minorities, said that the communal violence in the month following the election included murder, rape, attacks and looting of temples, attacks on houses and businesses, and encroachment on the homes of indigenous people.

The leaders also called on the government to take effective steps to address their grievances swiftly, steps including the immediate enactment of a minority protection law, the formation of a minority commission, a land commission for minorities and a minority ministry.

Manindra Kumar Nath, general secretary of the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council, said that within a month of the election, there had been at least fifty attacks on different minority communities across the country.

“These incidents include killings, attacks on statues and temples, land grabbing, looting and eviction of tribal property,” Nath said.

The recent general elections were supposed to help stabilize what has been a politically charged and culturally fraught period in the national life of Bangladesh.

In August 2024, the so-called religious minority-friendly Awami League government was overthrown by a mass uprising of students and the public.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted, fled the country and took refuge in India.

Later, an interim government led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Professor Dr. Mohammad Yunus took office. About 18 months later, the interim government organized national elections and a referendum on February 12, 2026.

In the elections, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) won two-thirds of the seats and formed the government.

A coalition led by the hardline Islamist party Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami won the second highest number of seats and represented the opposition in the National Parliament.

Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami is ambivalent toward Bangladesh’s 1971 war of independence against Pakistan, and several members of the party were convicted of war crimes and executed during the Hasina government.

Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairman and newly elected Prime Minister Tarique Rahman has promised vigilance and action to protect religious minorities and protect them as soon as possible

Palash Kanti, a representative of Bangladesh Nationalist Hindu Mahajot, told Crux Now they are watching the new government closely and expect swift action.

“We believe this government,” Kanti said, “but if this kind of torture and injustice against minorities continues, we will be forced to come up with a bigger prortest program.”

Kanti said his group had also appealed to the ousted Hasina’s government, “but she did not keep her word to us and everyone has seen what happened.”

“I want to tell Tarique Rahman: Don’t act like Hasina. Protect minorities, otherwise your situation will also be like Hasina’s.”