Majority attacks, vandalism against minorities ‘political in nature,’ only few ‘communal’: Bangladesh police

Dhaka: A vast majority of incidents against the minority communities since August 4 last year were ‘political in nature’ and not ‘communal,’ Bangladesh government said Saturday quoting a police report.

Police have set up a WhatsApp number to directly receive complaints of communal violence and maintain contact with the minority community.

Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus’ press wing said here that the police investigation came after the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council recently claimed that there were 2,010 incidents of communal violence since a day before deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina fled the country August 5 following a massive student-led protest that toppled her 16-year regime.

Of these, a total of 1,769 incidents were reported as attacks and vandalism; police have so far registered 62 cases on the merits of the claims, and arrested at least 35 culprits based on the investigation, the CA office’s press wing statement said.

Claiming that it was, however, found that “in the majority of the cases, the attacks were not communally motivated—rather, those were political in nature,” the statement said: “Police investigations found that 1,234 incidents were ‘political in nature,’ 20 incidents were communal and at least 161 claims were found to be false or untrue.”

“According to the claims of the Council, 1,452 incidents—or 82.8 per cent of the total claims—took place on August 5, 2024, when Hasina was ousted from power.

“At least 65 incidents took place August 4 and 70 incidents August 6,” it said.

Apart from the Council claims, police also received 134 allegations of communal violence from August 5 through January 8, 2025, it said, adding, police responded to all those complaints with utmost importance and at least 53 cases were filed against those complaints and 65 offenders were arrested.

“In all, since August 4, a total of 115 cases have been registered over complaints of communal attacks and at least 100 people have been arrested over the cases,” the statement said.

Before preparing the report, Bangladesh police collected the list of allegations prepared by the Council (and) communicated with the persons claimed to have been the targets of the violence, it said. The police also visited each and every place, establishment, and met persons mentioned in the report of the Council.

Bangladesh police have now set up a WhatsApp number to receive allegations of communal violence and to maintain continuous contact with the minority community leaders, it said.

The press wing said the interim government maintained a zero-tolerance policy towards any communal attacks in the country and ordered police to arrest the culprits. It also announced that it would compensate the victims.

There has been a spate of attacks on minorities, including Hindus, in Bangladesh as well as attacks on temples or cases of vandalism of properties belonging to the minority communities over the last few months triggering strong concerns in New Delhi.

The arrest of a Hindu monk on sedition charges further added to India’s concerns, which Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri conveyed to Dhaka when he travelled there in December.

Ahead of Misri’s visit, the interim government head Yunus had December 5 sought the cooperation of the religious leaders in collecting accurate information about attacks on minorities and bringing the perpetrators to justice amid reports of attacks on the Hindus.

In a separate statement, the press wing Friday said police in northwestern Natore district arrested the “main accused” of the murder of a 60-year-old Hindu person at a crematorium December 21, 2024.

Quoting a police headquarters report, the statement said that the initial investigation suggested the victim was physically sick for a long time and used to stay at the ‘Harishpur Mahashan Ghat’ for the past several days.

The arrested Sabuj Hossain, 24, confessed his involvement in the killing along with some accomplices, the statement said but added that the primary investigations suggested the culprits strangulated Tarun Chandra Das as he raised alarm while the culprits stole some bronze plates from the crematorium.

PTI