Bangladesh unrest highlights: India calls for ‘free, fair, inclusive’ polls in Bangladesh amid unrest

Bangladesh unrest live updates: On alleged atrocities on Hindus in Bangladesh, BJP MLA Balmukund Acharya told news agency ANI, "I pay homage to those who fell victim to the atrocities and sacrificed their lives, not only in Bangladesh, but all over the world... Everyone has their own set of beliefs... I urge the President to put an end to these atrocities... We remembered the children of our 10th Sikh Guru, who sacrificed their lives to save the country's culture... One whole family died protecting Sanatan... Our country should come first, which is our primary religion and responsibility..."

Bangladesh unrest live updates: AIMIM leader Waris Pathan, reacting to the violence against minorities in Bangladesh, told news agency PTI, “Atrocities should not be committed against minorities. No religion teaches us to kill or attack an unarmed person, and no religion permits mob killings. We condemn this completely. At the same time, we must look at our own country, mob lynchings are happening here too. Almost every day, Muslims are being targeted, sometimes in the name of cows or for not saying ‘Jai Shri Ram,’ and are lynched. Everyone should condemn this as well. No one should take the law into their own hands...”

Bangladesh unrest live updates: A court on Friday granted interim bail to 12 members of the Bangiyo Hindu Jagaran Mancha arrested for allegedly staging a violent demonstration outside the Bangladesh Deputy High Commission here, an official said.

The arrested were asked to furnish bonds of ₹6,000 each with two registered sureties each of ₹3,000 as other conditions of the interim bail, he said.

"Each of the accused should meet the investigation officer thrice a week for the next four months, or till submission of the final report, whichever is earlier," the court ordered, adding that while on bail, the accused should not interfere with the probe's progress. (PTI)

Bangladesh unrest live updates: Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari on Friday met senior officials of the Bangladesh Deputy High Commission here as part of a five-member delegation, and demanded an end to alleged atrocities on minorities in the neighbouring country.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, Adhikari claimed that the Deputy High Commission officials had avoided meeting him since Monday and agreed to the interaction only after he warned of staging a large protest outside the office. (PTI)

Bangladesh unrest live updates: The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Friday that it supports democratic processes in Bangladesh and called for free, fair, inclusive and participatory elections there.

"India stands for strengthening our ties with the people of Bangladesh. We favour peace and stability in Bangladesh and have consistently called for free, fair, inclusive and participatory elections in Bangladesh," said MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal.

Bangladesh unrest live updates: BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman on Friday visited the grave of his father and Bangladesh's former president Ziaur Rahman in Dhaka, 17 years after he returned home from self-exile in the UK.

The 60-year-old Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) acting chairman returned to the country on Thursday after living in London since 2008.

Rahman reached Zia Udyan in a red-and-green bulletproof bus and paid floral tributes at the grave, offering 'dua' and 'munajat' for the eternal peace of his father’s soul, news portal bangla.daily-sun.com reported.

BNP founder Ziaur Rahman was a Bangladeshi military officer who served as the sixth president of Bangladesh from 1977 until his assassination in 1981. He retired from the army in 1978 with the rank of lieutenant general. (PTI)

Bangladesh unrest live updates: The Ministry of External Affairs said on Friday that the incidents of violence against minorities in Bangladesh cannot be brushed aside as “media exaggeration” or dismissed as “political violence”.

Over 2,900 incidents of violence against minorities were documented in Bangladesh by independent sources during tenure of the current interim government, the MEA added.

Bangladesh unrest live updates: The Ministry of External Affairs said on Friday that the “unremitting hostility against minorities in Bangladesh, including Hindus, Christians and Buddhist at the hands of extremists is a matter of grave concern.”

It also condemned the “gruesome killing of a Hindu youth” and said that it “expects that the perpetrators of the crime would be brought to justice”.

“On minorities in Bangladesh: We are aware of the recent developments in Bangladesh. We have been closely following them,” it added.

Bangladesh unrest live updates: After Friday prayers, the organisation of which Osman Hadi was a spokesperson, Inqilab Moncho, staged a protest and blocked Shahbagh while demanding justice for the youth leader who was murdered, reported the Daily Star.

Apart from Inqilab Moncho, members of July Moncho and general public also participated in the protest as they took a procession from the Dhaka University Central Mosque towards Shahbagh and did a sit-in protests there, said the report.

Bangladesh unrest live updates: Congress MP Imran Masood on Friday said that Bangladesh is gradually becoming a hub of anti-India sentiment and called for practical steps to address this situation.

Speaking to ANI, Congress MP condemned the attacks on the minority Hindu community in Bangladesh, saying that targeting and persecuting people in the name of religion is very wrong.

"The situation in Bangladesh is certainly concerning. Bangladesh is becoming a hub of anti-India sentiment. We should take effective steps... In Bangladesh, people are being identified and persecuted in the name of religion, which is very bad," said Masood. (ANI)

Bangladesh unrest live updates: Amid the ongoing unrest and killing of a Hindu man last week, activists of Hindu Sanhati took out a rally in Kolkata to the office of the Bangladesh Deputy High Commission in protest against the alleged attacks. The rally started from Sealdah station in north Kolkata and was headed for the diplomatic mission office in Beckbagan in the central part of the city, raising slogans against alleged atrocities on minority Hindus across the border, PTI news agency reported.

Bangladesh unrest live updates: Reacting to the killing of a Hindu man in Bangladesh, union minister Jitan Ram Manjhi said that members of the community are increasingly becoming targets, not just in Bangladesh but alsp in other neighbouring countries. After Partition, India had a minority population of 7%; today it stands at 18%, as we have sheltered and nurtured them. In Pakistan, however, Hindus made up 11% of the population at the time of Partition, but today they constitute only 1%. Bangladesh appears to be following the same path. Hindus are being deliberately lynched. Our government should take cognisance of these atrocities and take firm action against such persecution of Hindus in Bangladesh...," Manjhi told news agency ANI.

Bangladesh Unrest LIVE Updates: Actor-turned politician Jaya Parada expressed anguish over the killing if Hindu man in Bangladesh and said that it was an attack on the Hindu religion. “Today I am very unhappy, my heart is bleeding, thinking how such kind of brutality can be done to a person, in Bangladesh, an innocent Hindu person Dipu Charan Das was lynched by a mob, they not only killed him, but set himself on fire after tying to a tree, is this the new Bangladesh? It is not a normal violence, it is a mob lynching, it is an attack on Hindu religion, our temples are being demolished, the women are being attacked, how long we will be silent? We are silent on the name of secularism, we should raise our voices, we should help the people there... We should together try to seek justice for them,” she said.

Bangladesh Unrest LIVE Updates: Sharing an ‘All eyes on Bangladesh Hindus’ poster on her Instagram story, actor Kajal Aggarwal raised concerns over the safety of Hindus in the neighbouring country with the message “Wake up Hindus, silence won’t save you."

Bangladesh Unrest LIVE Updates: Several Indian celebrities have condemned the killing of Dipu Chandra Das, a Hindu man, in Mymensingh district of Bangladesh. Actor Janhvi Kapoor took to Instagram and wrote, “What is happening in Bangladesh is barbaric. It is slaughter and it is not an isolated incident. If you don't know about his inhumane public lynching, read about it, see the videos, ask the questions. And if despite all of this you feel no rage, then it is exactly this kind of hypocrisy that will destroy us before we know it."

The Homebound actor added, “We will continue to cry about things half way across the globe while our own brothers and sisters are burnt to death. Extremism in any and every form needs to be called out and condemned before we forget our humanity.”

Bangladesh Unrest LIVE Updates: BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman's speech upon return from exile has given the party a fresh hope, particularly with parliamentary polls just months away. The Daily Star spoke to several BNP workers. One among them was Toyeb Ali Babu, the upazila BNP general secretary from Nilphamari, who attended Rahman's Dhaka rally and said, “Today feels like Eid for us.”

Bangladesh Unrest LIVE Updates: In an interesting turn of events, student-led National Citizen Party (NCP), formed in the aftermath of the 'July Uprising', is currently moving towards creating an electoral alliance with the radical Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, Prothom Alo reported. According to Abdul Qader, one of the leaders of the July Uprising, which led to the ousting of the former prime minister Sheikh Hasina last year and a former coordinator of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, the NCP is currently in talks with the Jamaat-e-Islami to ally ahead of the parliamentary polls, Prothom Alo reported.

Bangladesh Unrest LIVE Updates: A Hindu man was beaten to death by a mob in Bangladesh’s Rajbari district after allegations that he had gone to a villager’s home to demand extortion money, local media reports said. The incident took place on Wednesday night at Hosendanga village in Pangsha upazila of Rajbari district. The victim was identified as Amrit Mondal, also known as Samrat, a resident of the same village, according to a report by Bangladesh-daily The Daily Star. According to police and local accounts cited by The Daily Star, Mondal, along with members of his group, went to the house of Shahidul Islam, a village resident, and allegedly demanded extortion money. Shahidul and his family raised an alarm, prompting locals to rush to the spot.

While Mondal’s associates managed to flee, he was caught, reportedly with weapons in his possession. He was beaten by locals and later taken to a hospital, where doctors declared him brought dead. Click here to read more

Bangladesh Unrest LIVE Updates: Amid the ongoing unrest, Bangladesh's Special Assistant to the Chief Adviser of the interim government on Home Affairs, Khuda Baksh Chowdhury, resigned on Thursday. The Daily Star quoted sources within the interim government saying that his resignation came amid growing concerns over his handling of law and order ahead of the parliamentary elections scheduled for Feb 2026. "He needed to resign due to his failure to perform at the expected level and shortcomings in crisis management," said another senior government official. “He was a former IGP, and there were expectations that he would play a strong and decisive role,” the report quoted officials of the interim government as saying.

Bangladesh Unrest LIVE Updates: Bangladesh’s interim government on Thursday condemned the killing of a Hindu criminal by a mob in Rajbari Town and said legal action will be taken against all persons involved in the incident. The caretaker administration led by Muhammad Yunus issued a statement providing details of the killing of Amrit Mondal alias Samrat on Wednesday night to counter what it said was “misleading information” on the incident being spread on social media. The statement, issued in Bengali, described Mondal’s death in the Pangsha police station area of Rajbari as a “tragic murder”, and said information from the police and initial investigations indicated that the “incident was not a communal attack”. Click here to read more

Bangladesh Unrest LIVE Updates: Amid the ongoing tensions in Bangladesh, another Hindu man was lynched. However, the victims was killed over alleged extortion, according to media reports. The incident took place on Wednesday in Rajbari town's Pangsha upazila, The Daily Star newspaper on Thursday quoted police as saying. The deceased, identified as Amrit Mondal, had allegedly formed a criminal gang and was involved in extortion and other criminal activities.

Bangladesh Unrest LIVE Updates: "The time has come for all of us to build the country together. This country belongs to people of the hills and the plains, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and Christians. We want to build a safe Bangladesh, where every woman, man, and child can leave home and return safely," the BNP leader said at the rally in Dhaka. He said that Bangladeshis want to regain their right to speak and want their democratic rights back.

Bangladesh Unrest LIVE Updates: As Tarique Rahman returned home 17 years of self-imposed exile to a rousing welcome in Dhaka, he addressed a massive rally in Purbachal area. Rahman called for the return of peace to Bangladesh and stated that as the leader of BNP, he has a plan. He later met his ailing mother, Khaleda Zia, at Evercare hospital.

Bangladesh Unrest LIVE Updates: Police on Thursday arrested six more people in connection with the killing of Dipu Chandra Das who worked in a garment factory, the Dhaka Tribune reported. Following people were arrested on Thursday as the total number of people held in the case has gone up to 18:

• Takbir, 22, of Sunamganj
• Ruhul Amin, 42, of Thakurgaon
• Nur Alam, 33, of Sadar upazila
• Shamim Mia, 28, of Tarakanda upazila in Mymensingh district
• Selim Mia, 22, of Noakhali
• Masum Khalashi, 23, of Madaripur district.