Fear grips Hindu voters as Bangladesh heads to elections, seek special security and separate booths

Bangladesh’s leading Hindu groups warn authorities that Hindus feel unsafe to vote in upcoming elections due to rising violence and targeted attacks. Recent killings, including Samir Das’s murder, have intensified fears and calls for enhanced security measures.

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A leading Hindu organisation in Bangladesh has warned the authorities that members of the Hindu community do not feel safe enough to participate in the upcoming parliamentary elections, underlining the deepening crisis faced by minorities under the country’s interim government.

Representatives of Dhakeshwari Hindu Sabha and the Hindu Christian Buddhist Unity Council, the largest Hindu umbrella body in Bangladesh, met officials of the Election Commission of Bangladesh to raise urgent concerns over voter safety.

The delegation told election officials that fear had spread widely across Hindu communities and that many voters were unwilling to turn up at polling stations without enhanced security guarantees.

Demand for special security and separate booths

During the meeting, the organisations demanded additional deployment of security forces in minority-dominated areas and called for separate polling booths with special arrangements to ensure safe voting.

They said such measures were necessary as Hindus continued to face intimidation, threats, and targeted attacks, particularly during politically sensitive periods. According to the groups, the atmosphere of fear has worsened rather than eased as the election approaches.

Bangladesh’s parliamentary election is scheduled for February 12.

Fresh killing in Chittagong deepens fears

The appeal to the Election Commission came in the immediate aftermath of another killing of a Hindu man in the Chittagong region.

On Sunday evening, 28-year-old Samir Das was beaten and stabbed to death in Daganbhuiyan. Das, an auto-rickshaw driver, was attacked by a group of assailants who fled after killing him and stealing his battery-operated vehicle.

Journalist Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury said Samir Das was thrashed and stabbed before being left to die. He was the eldest son of Kartik Kumar Das and Rina Rani Das.

The killing has intensified anger and fear among minorities, many of whom see little evidence of effective action by the authorities.

Pattern of killings since December 2025

Samir Das’s death is not an isolated incident. More than a dozen Hindus have been killed in lynching, shooting, and mob attacks across Bangladesh since December 2025.

Violence surged following protests linked to the death of July uprising organiser Sharif Osman Hadi in Singapore. The unrest has increasingly taken on a communal edge, with minorities bearing the brunt.

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

In another incident, 25-year-old Mithun Sarkar died after jumping into a canal while fleeing a mob that accused him of theft. In Jessore district, Rana Pratap Bairagi, a Hindu businessman and acting newspaper editor, was shot dead. On the same day, Hindu grocery shop owner Sarat Mani Chakraborty also died.

In Mymensingh, Dipu Chandra Das was lynched and burned to death over alleged blasphemy. Amrit Mondal was lynched following extortion allegations, while Bajendra Biswas, a Hindu garment factory worker, was shot dead in the same region.

In one of the most brutal cases, a Hindu woman was allegedly gang-raped, tied to a tree, and had her hair cut off.

India reacts, interim government under fire

The repeated attacks have drawn sharp reactions from India.

Amit Malviya, BJP IT Cell head, condemned the killing of Samir Das in a post on X, calling it part of a broader pattern of persecution under the interim administration led by Muhammad Yunus.

Malviya wrote that Das was brutally murdered and his autorickshaw looted, alleging that the interim government had failed to protect minorities while dismissing such attacks as “fiction”. He also warned Hindus in West Bengal that a similar situation could unfold if Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee returns to power in 2026.

Veteran journalist and government adviser Kanchan Gupta echoed the criticism, attacking the silence of Western governments and the Yunus administration.

“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’.”

As Bangladesh moves toward elections, minority groups say the interim government’s failure to ensure basic safety has stripped the democratic process of credibility for a large section of its citizens. For many Hindus, the question is no longer who to vote for, but whether voting itself is worth the risk.