A 40-year-old Hindu woman was attacked inside her home in a village in Jhenaidah Sadar upazila on Thursday afternoon. Assailants cut her hair, forced her to the ground, and rubbed chili powder over her body. Her son was also beaten when he tried to intervene. The victim filed a case at Sadar Police Station the same night.
According to the victim’s account and police, the attackers were the wife, two daughters, and son of a man named Anwar Hossain, along with a local man named Abdur Rashid. They accused her of being involved in an extramarital relationship with Anwar.
The woman said she was at home when Abdur Rashid arrived and levelled the accusation. Shortly afterward, Anwar’s wife and children entered the house. The five of them grabbed her by the hair, threw her to the ground, cut her hair, and applied chili powder across her body. Her cries woke her sleeping son, who was assaulted when he attempted to stop the attack. The woman later received treatment from a local village doctor before lodging the formal complaint.
The victim stated that she and her family had sold land to construct a permanent kitchen and cowshed. Anwar’s wife alleged that the construction was being funded with her husband’s money. The woman claimed the attack occurred because she belongs to the Hindu community. A local resident also described the incident as an assault on a Hindu woman in which the attackers entered her house and beat her collectively.
Police confirmed that the victim named the five individuals as accused in the First Information Report. The Officer-in-Charge of Jhenaidah Sadar Police Station, Md Asaduzzaman, said operations are underway to arrest the accused. Abdur Rashid has identified himself locally as a BNP leader, but party members say he holds no formal position. He could not be reached at his home; locals said he switched off his phone and went into hiding after learning of the case.
The incident occurs against a backdrop of heightened reports of violence targeting religious minorities—particularly Hindus—and women since the August 2024 resignation of the Awami League government and the subsequent political transition.
Rights groups and media have documented repeated attacks on minority homes, temples, and properties, alongside incidents of moral policing and physical assaults on women.
While this case appears rooted in a personal dispute and an accusation of an extramarital relationship, the victim’s explicit claim that her Hindu identity was a factor, combined with the home invasion and humiliating physical abuse, aligns with broader patterns of impunity and mob-style enforcement of social or communal grievances that have become more frequent in the post-2024 period. Even mainstream media keeps mum when it comes to impunity for the perpetrators.
In the case of the Jhenaidah woman, the Daily Prothom Alo refrained from mentioning the word “Hindu” in the first few paragraphs, let alone in the headline.