At least 15 members of Bangladesh’s Hindu minority were allegedly killed over the course of 45 days, according to the Rights & Risks Analysis Group (RRAG) on Thursday. This raises grave doubts about the viability of inclusive and participatory elections in the nation. According to a study published on Thursday by the RRAG, one Hindu was slain on average every third day between December 1, 2025, and January 15, 2026. According to the organization, the victims were murdered by members of the mostly Muslim community.
Samir Das and Prolay Chaki (January 11), Joy Mohapatra (January 10), Mithun Sarkar and Sarat Mani Chakraborty (January 6), Rana Pratap Bairagi (January 5), Bajendra Biswas (December 29), Amrit Mondal (December 24), Dipu Chandra Das (December 18), Shanto Chandra Das (December 12), Jogesh Chandra Roy and Suborna Roy (December 7), Prantosh Kormokar and Utpol Sarkar (December 2).
According to RRAG Director Suhas Chakma, the victims included both young individuals like 18-year-old Shanto Chandra Das and elderly people like Suborna Roy. He said that the murders were planned and, in many instances, connected to the theft or confiscation of property, including some of the victims’ auto-rickshaws. Chakma also said that many of the killings involved cutting the victims’ necks in a “Taliban-style” way. “Daily acts of violence against Hindus and other minorities in Bangladesh frequently go unreported in the media, so these murders are just the tip of the iceberg,” Chakma stated. The RRAG also accused Bangladesh’s interim administration, headed by Chief Advisor Dr. Muhammad Yunus, of continuously downplaying the religious aspect of attacks on Hindu minority. The organization claims that even before investigations are finished, the interim administration has labeled such instances as political violence or misinformation. Chakma also claimed that Dr. Yunus has attempted to portray attacks on Hindu minority as a component of an Indian misinformation effort. He mentioned that on January 13, 2026, Dr. Yunus met with Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, to request technological support to combat election-related misinformation.
The RRAG cautioned that minority groups, especially Hindus, may experience “unprecedented violence” because of their religious identity once election campaigning gets underway on January 22, 2026. It said that, as was the case after widespread attacks on Hindu minority in August 2024, such attacks may once more be written off as political violence. The declaration was made a few days after Ivars Ijabs, Chief Observer of the European Union Election Observation Mission (EU EOM) in Bangladesh, demanded on January 11 that elections be “inclusive” and “participatory,” engaging regional groupings, ethnic communities, and religious minorities. Hindu minority are unlikely to be able to actively engage in the election process in the current violent environment, according to RRAG, unless the interim government recognizes the religious basis of the attacks and takes proactive measures to protect them. In order to ensure that Hindu and other minority communities are included in the election process, the organization called on international stakeholders, such as the European Union and other election observer organizations, to work with Bangladesh’s interim government and keep a close eye out for instances of violence against indigenous peoples, ethnic groups, and religious minorities.
