NEW DELHI: In a sharp escalation of tensions over attacks on Hindu minorities in Bangladesh, India on Saturday condemned the brutal killing of community leader Bhabesh Chandra Roy as part of a “systematic persecution” and firmly urged Dhaka to protect its minorities without offering excuses or justifications.
Bhabesh Chandra Roy, 58, a prominent Hindu leader and vice-president of the Biral unit of the Bangladesh Puja Udjapan Parishad, was murdered in Dinajpur, Bangladesh. Local media reports said Roy was abducted from home by four men on motorcycles half-an-hour after he receiving a suspicious call around 4.30 pm. They took him to Narabari village, where he was savagely assaulted.
The attackers later dumped the unconscious Roy at his home in a van. He taken to a hospital, where he was declared dead.
“We have noted with distress the abduction and brutal killing of Shri Bhabesh Chandra Roy, a Hindu minority leader in Bangladesh,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.
“This killing follows a pattern of systematic persecution of Hindu minorities under the interim government even as the perpetrators of previous such events roam with impunity.”