India condemns abduction, killing of Hindu leader in Bangladesh

New Delhi urged the interim government in Dhaka to protect all minorities, reflecting the continuing strain in bilateral ties over the status of religious minorities in the neighbouring country

Published on: Apr 19, 2025, 14:10:46 IST

By Rezaul H Laskar

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New Delhi: India on Saturday condemned the abduction and killing of a Hindu community leader in Bangladesh and urged the interim government in Dhaka to protect all minorities, reflecting the continuing strain in bilateral ties over the status of religious minorities in the neighbouring country.

Bhabesh Chandra Roy, a prominent leader of the Hindu community in Biral sub-district, was allegedly abducted from his home and beaten to death on Thursday, according to reports in the Bangladeshi media. He was taken away from his home by four men who arrived on two motorcycles, the reports said.

External affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal condemned the killing in a social media post and said it was part of a “pattern of systematic persecution of Hindu minorities” under Bangladesh’s interim government.

“We have noted with distress the abduction and brutal killing of Shri Bhabesh Chandra Roy, a Hindu minority leader in Bangladesh,” Jaiswal said. “We condemn this incident and once again remind the interim government to live up to its responsibility of protecting all minorities, including Hindus, without inventing excuses or making distinctions.”

Jaiswal also said the “perpetrators of previous such events roam with impunity” in Bangladesh.

The condemnation came a day after India rejected remarks by Bangladeshi officials regarding sectarian violence in West Bengal and asked Bangladesh to focus on protecting the rights of its minorities.

The spokesperson for Bangladesh interim government chief Muhammad Yunus had on Thursday condemned attacks on Muslims in West Bengal and asked the Indian government to “fully protect the minority Muslim population”.

Responding to these remarks, Jaiswal said on Friday that instead of making “unwarranted comments and indulging in virtue signalling”, Bangladesh should focus on protecting the rights of its own minorities.

Jaiswal also described the remarks by Yunus’s spokesperson as a “barely disguised and disingenuous attempt to draw a parallel with India’s concerns over the ongoing persecution of minorities in Bangladesh, where the criminal perpetrators of such acts continue to roam free”.

India-Bangladesh relations have been in free fall since the caretaker government led by Yunus assumed office after former premier Sheikh Hasina was ousted by student-led protests last August. The two sides have repeatedly clashed over Dhaka’s handling of the repression of Bangladesh’s Hindus, with New Delhi calling for steps to protect the minority.

The matter was raised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he met Yunus on the margins of the Bimstec Summit in Bangkok on April 4. According to a readout from the external affairs ministry, Modi underlined India’s concerns about the safety and security of minorities in Bangladesh and “expressed his expectation that the Government of Bangladesh would ensure their security, including by thoroughly investigating the cases of atrocities committed against them”.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rezaul H Laskar
Rezaul Hasan Laskar is Foreign Editor with the Hindustan Times, which he joined in 2015. He began as a journalist in his hometown of Shillong in northeast India and has worked in newspapers and wire services over the years. He moved to New Delhi in 1997 and initially focused on defence, national security, Jammu and Kashmir and the northeast, while also working of foreign policy and international relations. He has been part of the media delegation accompanying PMs on foreign visits and has reported from destinations ranging from Tibet to Ukraine. Between 2007 and 2013, he was the Press Trust of India correspondent in Pakistan, one of only two Indian journalists allowed to report from the country. He extensively covered Pakistan’s domestic politics and the life of the common people, as well as the fallout of the 2008 Mumbai attacks on India-Pakistan relations and the subsequent trial in Pakistan of the suspects involved in the attack. As part of his reportage in Pakistan, he travelled the breadth of the country, from the Swat Valley to Balochistan. Reza’s first gig in journalism was writing a weekly music column, and music – especially classic rock – remains a keen interest. He is also a movie buff and a keen photographer.Read More

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