Though Muhammad Yunus, the Chief Advisor to Bangladesh’s interim government, repeatedly dismissed incidents of violence against Hindus as “exaggerated propaganda,” a fact-finding report by the United Nations Human Rights Office debunked his claims by providing evidence of violent mob attacks, including assaults on Hindu places of worship.
Interestingly, the fact-finding mission was dispatched at the invitation of Yunus’ temporary administration.
After violent protests caused Bangladesh’s now-deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to escape on August 5, 2024, Hindus, who account for around 8% of the country’s 17-crore population, were targeted with murderous attacks on their homes, businesses, and religious sites.
A week after Hasina’s ouster in August 2024, India Today Digital scanned reports and spoke with sources in Bangladesh to report that there were over 200 incidents of attacks on minority Hindus, including five killings, in three days of chaos following the fall of the Sheikh Hasina regime in Bangladesh.
However, even as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and then-US President-elect Donald Trump condemned the attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh, Yunus dismissed the bloodshed as “exaggerated propaganda” with political motivations to destabilize the country.
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What UN report says
The UN report published on February 12 also remarked that violent mob assaults on Hindu minorities in Bangladesh started prior to Hasina’s forced escape to India.
It also indicated that, in addition to Hindus, Ahmadiyya Muslims and indigenous communities in the Chittagong Hill Tracts faced comparable atrocities in Bangladesh.
“The report summarized that during and following the protests, members of the Hindu community, Ahmadiyya Muslims, and indigenous groups in the Chittagong Hill Tracts faced violent mob attacks, with incidents including home burnings and assaults on places of worship.”
Hindus and other minority groups previously asserted that the interim government led by Yunus hadn’t sufficiently safeguarded them. According to the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council, a minority rights organization, Hindus in Bangladesh experienced more than 2,000 attacks following Hasina’s exile in August 2024, reported the Associated Press in November.
From November 26, 2024, to January 25, 2025, there have been “76 reported incidents of attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh. According to Kirti Vardhan Singh, the Minister of State (MoS) for the Ministry of External Affairs, said in Parliament last week that since August, there have been reports of 23 Hindu deaths and 152 attacks on Hindu temples in Bangladesh.
