522 communal attacks in 2025, not 71, says minority rights body

At a press conference in Dhaka, the minority rights organization said the incidents led to 66 deaths, included 28 cases of violence against women—including rape and gang rape—and involved 95 attacks on places of worship and 102 attacks on homes and business establishments. The violence also included land grabbing, abductions, extortion, torture and arrests on allegations of religious blasphemy. Presenting the organization’s annual review, Acting General Secretary Monindra Kumar Nath said the figures were compiled from reports published in national newspapers and other media outlets between January and December 2025. He described the documentation as partial but credible, reflecting the lived reality of minority communities. The Unity Council strongly criticized a January 19 Facebook post by the chief adviser, which stated that investigations identified 645 incidents involving minorities in 2025 but classified only 71 as communal, labelling the remaining 574 as non-communal. “The official definition of communal violence appears to exclude killings, rapes, arson attacks on homes, land grabbing and targeted assaults unless they occur inside temple premises,” Nath said, calling the government’s position “absurd and misleading”. He questioned how killings of minority individuals reported in districts including Satkhira, Natore, Savar, Gopalganj, Dinajpur, Noakhali, Mymensingh, Faridpur, Narsingdi, Rajbari, Rangpur, Chattogram and Pirojpur could be dismissed as non-communal. Many of these cases, he said, have been identified as communal violence by national and international media and rights groups. According to the Council’s data, the 522 incidents included 95 attacks on places of worship, involving vandalism, looting and arson, as well as 21 cases of occupation or attempted occupation of land belonging to religious institutions. The report also documented 38 incidents of abduction, extortion and torture, 47 incidents of physical assault and death threats, and 36 cases of arrest and torture on allegations of blasphemy. At least 66 incidents involved forcible occupation of homes, land and businesses. The organization also condemned what it described as the harassment and criminalisation of minority leaders, citing the imprisonment of Prabhu Chinmoy Krishna Das Brahmachari of Pundarik Dham in Hathazari and multiple cases filed against senior Unity Council leaders, forcing some into hiding. With the 13th National Parliamentary Election scheduled for February 12, the Unity Council warned that communal violence has continued into the election period. Between January 1 and January 27, 2026, it recorded 42 incidents, including 11 murders, one rape, nine attacks on temples and churches, and 21 cases of looting, arson and land grabbing. Nath said the ongoing violence and hate rhetoric have created an atmosphere of fear, discouraging minorities—particularly women, youth, students and business owners—from exercising their constitutional right to vote. The Unity Council urged the Election Commission to ensure a level playing field, ban the use of religion and communalism in campaigns, deploy security forces in minority-dominated high-risk areas and establish a monitoring cell to oversee law and order before, during and after the election. “We still place our hope in the Election Commission and the government,” Nath said, “but past experience has repeatedly disappointed us.”