Most of attacks on minorities ‘political’: Bangladesh police

Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus’ press wing said that the police investigation came after the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council recently claimed there were 2,010 incidents of communal violence since a day before deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina fled the country on 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 claims, and arrested at least 35 culprits based on the investigation, the CA office’s press wing statement said.

Claiming that it was 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 on August 4 and 70 incidents on 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 and at least 53 cases were filed against those complaints and 65 offenders were held.

“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 those mentioned in the Council’s report.

The press wing said the interim government maintained a zero-tolerance policy towards any communal attacks and ordered police to arrest the culprits. It also said 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 when he travelled to Dhaka in December.

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