Citizens took out a human chain near the National Press Club in Dhaka, expressing their dissatisfaction at the persecution of the Hindu minority in Bangladesh.

People were complaining about the silence of the newly elected government of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party in preventing the carnage of Hindus.

General Secretary, Bangladesh Jatiya Hindu Mohajote, Mrityunjay Kumar Roy, said, ‘We are here on behalf of the atrocities committed against the Hindu minority group here – the murders, rapes and loots underway…And still, almost one month since BNP assumed power, the atrocities against the Hindu community are still being perpetrated here’.

Violence against Hindus and other minorities also escalated following the overthrow of the government of Sheikh Hasina in 2024.

In the last week, two Hindu men were killed in two different attacks, and four others were injured as a crude bomb was detonated inside a temple in the country, according to the rights group Bangladesh Jatio Hindu Mohajote (Bangladesh National Grand Alliance).

On March 6 and March 7, two individuals were killed in Bogura and Cox’s Bazar, and on March 8, crude bombs were hurled against a Hindu temple in Cumilla city during a puja, causing a great alarm, rights groups said on Sunday.

‘On March 7 (Saturday) at around 6.30 pm, when a group of communal terrorists were carrying out the worship of Shani Dev in a temple located at the South Thakurpara in Cumilla city, crude bombs were detonated. The temple priest and four others were severely wounded,’ said a statement of Bangladesh Jatio Hindu Mohajote.

There were reports by the Bangladesh news station, The Daily Star, which corroborated the information on the attack at the Kaligach Tala Kali Mandir. According to Touhidul Anwar, the officer-in-charge of Kotwali Model Police Station, priest Keshob Chakraborty, and two others were treated in a hospital.

Sajol Kumar Chanda, the president of the temple committee, told the media that the blast happened during a religious ceremony. CCTV cameras allegedly captured an individual wearing a mask getting into the temple right before the blast and abandoning a bag.

Giving an account of the time of the blast, wounded priest Keshab Chakraborty was quoted by the Daily Star saying, ‘After the bomb blast, a white object crashed in front of me… And afterwards, when we noticed smoke, other people informed us that it was a bomb.’

According to the news outlet, panic ensued in the vicinity following the explosion, with witnesses saying so. After the initial explosion, the attackers supposedly exploded two additional crude bombs along a local Buddhist temple and an individual’s office.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its allies have gained a two-thirds majority in the parliament in the general elections last month, after which Tarique Rahman was elected to lead the country as the Prime Minister.