By 
21-05-2026 | Miriam Schanz | Asia Team Researcher, Global Human Rights Defence.
A rising pattern of violence against minorities in Bangladesh raises human rights concerns, with 505 incidents documented in the first four months of 2026 alone. The Human Rights Congress for Bangladesh Minorities (HRCBM) documented 505 incidents over 62 districts and all 8 divisions of Bangladesh between January and April 2026 in its most recent report entitled “The Persecution Continues: Minority Communities Under Sustained Attack in Bangladesh”. The report outlined the main categories these incidents fall under: attacks on temples and other religious institutions, physical assaults, sexual violence, looting, arson, land grabs, intimidation, kidnappings, killings and other suspicious deaths, and blasphemy-related persecutions.
According to HRCBM, these incidents do not reflect isolated or localised occurrences but rather represent persistent patterns of violence, intimidation, sexual abuse, land dispossession, religious attacks, mob aggression and ultimately highlight institutional protection failures that impact minority communities nationwide. The documented violations found 144 cases of kidnapping and physical assault, 132 incidents of property attacks, land grabbing, arson, and looting, and 100 cases of murder and suspicious death were the main categories of documented violations. It also recorded six incidents involving blasphemy, 28 cases of sexual violence, including rape and gang rape and 95 attacks on temples and instances of religious violence.
Vulnerable minority communities continue to receive inadequate protection, accountability and equal access to justice, as evidenced by the documented pattern. The report draws attention to persistent issues with slow response times, weak investigations, intimidation of victims or their families and, in many instances, a lack of visible accountability. The escalating of violence against minorities became increasingly pronounced, especially for Hindus, during the tenure of the former Muhammad Yunus-led interim government. Furthermore, targeted attacks on minority communities have sharply increased under the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) government, as evidenced by the recurrent incidents.
