India on Friday called on Bangladesh to firmly deal with communal incidents in the country, as New Delhi continued to express its concerns over the persecutioin of Hindus in hostile circumstances in recent weeks.
"We continue to witness a disturbing pattern of recurring attacks on minorities as well as their homes and businesses by extremists," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.
Such communal incidents need to be dealt with swiftly and firmly, he said.
"We have observed a troubling tendency to attribute such incidents to personal rivalries, political differences, or extraneous reasons," Jaiswal said. "Such disregard only emboldens the perpetrators and deepens the sense of fear and insecurity among minorities," he added.
Bangladesh has seen a rise in violent attacks against minorities under the interim administration led by Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus, with Hindus, who make up roughly 7% of the population, frequently targeted and several incidents being reported over the past few weeks.
On Sunday, Sarat Mani Chakraborty, a 40-year-old grocery store owner from Shibpur upazila, was attacked with sharp weapons in Narsingdi district and later died from his injuries.
Hours earlier on Saturday, 45-year-old Rana Pratap Bairagi, a factory owner and acting newspaper editor in Jashore district, was shot in the head and had his throat slit by a group of men. On the same day, a Hindu woman in Jhenaidah district was allegedly raped by two men who also demanded money, tied her to a tree, cut her hair, and circulated videos of the assault online. She was hospitalised after losing consciousness.
Days earlier, Khokon Chandra Das, 50, was set on fire after closing his medicine and mobile banking shop 150 km from Dhaka. He survived by jumping into a pond but later died in hospital on January 3.
Other recent incidents include the killing of Bajendra Biswas, 40, a member of the paramilitary Ansar Bahini, at a garment factory in Bhaluka on 29 December by a colleague; the lynching of 29-year-old Amrit Mondal over alleged extortion in Rajbari on December 24; and the lynching and immolation of 29-year-old Dipu Chandra Das over alleged blasphemy in Mymensingh on December 18.
These attacks highlight a worrying trend of violence against minority communities in Bangladesh, raising concerns about security and the protection of vulnerable groups.
