In a scathing indictment of Bangladesh’s interim administration, the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council has revealed that 2025 witnessed at least 522 communal violence episodes nationwide. This stark contrast to the government’s figure of merely 71 incidents highlights a troubling discrepancy in addressing minority persecution under Muhammad Yunus’s watch.
During a Dhaka press briefing, Acting GS Monindra Kumar Nath presented the comprehensive annual audit, drawn from extensive media coverage throughout the year. The data is harrowing: 66 fatalities, 28 atrocities on women encompassing sexual assaults, 95 assaults on places of worship, and 102 raids on residences and commercial outlets.
Additional horrors include 38 abductions paired with extortion and brutality; 47 intimidations involving death threats and beatings; 36 detentions and abuses under blasphemy pretexts; plus 66 forcible occupations of properties and businesses. These details, corroborated by outlets like Dhaka Tribune, expose systemic failures.
Ahead of the February 12 polls, the group flags persistent unrest: 42 events from early January to the 27th, featuring 11 killings, a rape incident, nine strikes on temples and churches, and 21 lootings, fires, and encroachments.
Monindra Kumar Nath voiced the minorities’ dilemma: eager to vote yet paralyzed by threats to safety, sustenance, assets, and honor. He warned that any voter suppression among them would implicate the state apparatus, poll body, and parties.
Condemning Yunus’s January 19 online statement—citing 645 cases with only 71 deemed communal—the council decried the skewed classification. Nath lambasted how killings, rapes, burnings, seizures, and assaults evade the ‘communal’ tag without temple boundaries, branding the narrative ‘ridiculous and deceptive.’
The report spotlights targeting of leaders, from Chinmoy Krishna Das’s arrest to probes against council figures, driving many underground. Yunus’s tenure has seen lawlessness spiral, minority attacks proliferate, prompting alarm from global and local rights watchdogs.
This exposé arrives at a pivotal moment, urging the interim government to confront the reality of communal strife and protect Bangladesh’s pluralistic fabric before elections amplify divisions.
