‘Don’t say I am Hindu ’: Muhammad Yunus warns Bangladesh minorities amid targeted attack claims
Interim leader Muhammad Yunus urged Hindus in Bangladesh to assert their rights as citizens instead of seeking protection based on religion.
Amid reports of attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh, interim leader Muhammad Yunus urged the minority community not to say, “I am Hindu, protect me”. He rather stressed that Hindus should assert their rights as Bangladeshi citizen rather than appeal for protection based solely on their “religion”.
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When Sheikh Hasina was ousted in 2024, Muhammad Yunus was tasked with reviving Bangladesh's struggling economy.
One of his key challenges was to reshape the country's foreign policy in line with these renewed priorities. However, Yunus appeared to quickly succumb to the growing anti-India sentiment on the streets and the rising political influence of extremist factions.
Also Read: Khaleda Zia vs Sheikh Hasina: How the ‘Battle of Begums’ shaped Bangladesh politics. Explainer
Major concerns included rising attacks on Hindu minorities and vandalism of Hindu temples.
Continuously, Yunus has dismissed reports of violence against Hindus in Bangladesh, labelling them as “fake news” and denying any failure by his government to protect religious minorities.
“First of all, these are fake news. You can’t go by those. Fake news,” Yunus said in an interview with journalist Mehdi Hasan, responding to demonstrations by Hindus and international criticism, including a statement from US President Donald Trump, who had called the violence in Bangladesh “barbaric.”
When Hasan cited documented cases of mob attacks, vandalism of temples, and the arrest of a Hindu monk for raising a religious flag, Yunus doubled down. He even made an unsubstantiated claim about India, saying: “One of the specialities of India right now is fake news. Okay, barrage of fake news.”
Attack on Hindus in Bangladesh: Data speaks no lie
Concerning the attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh, the situation worsened in April 2025 when a Hindu community leader was abducted and killed. By July, human rights groups had documented over 2,400 incidents targeting minorities, including murder, torture, rape, and forced conversions, since August 2024.
Human Rights Watch, in a statement on July 30, said the interim government “is falling short in implementing its challenging human rights agenda.” It said violations against ethnic and other minority groups in some parts of Bangladesh have continued.
In August, India's Minister of State for External Affairs, Kirti Vardhan Singh, told Parliament that the Indian government had flagged at least 3,582 incidents of violence against minorities in Bangladesh since 2021.
Responding to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Singh said the government closely monitors violence and atrocities against religious minorities in neighboring countries, including Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.
“The Government of India has shared its concerns on the matter with the Government of Bangladesh, including at the highest levels, with the expectation that the Government of Bangladesh will take all necessary measures to ensure the safety and welfare of Hindus and other minorities,” he said.t
Singh also noted that India had raised concerns with Pakistan over 334 major incidents of minority-targeted violence.
In October 2025, fresh reports surfaced accusing the Bangladeshi army of violence against indigenous communities, including both Hindus and Buddhists.
On October 2, addressing the 60th session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, Suhas Chakma, director of the Rights and Risks Analysis Group, accused the Bangladesh Army of killing at least three indigenous people and injuring 40 others in Guimara village in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) on September 28.
One year on, Bangladesh's instability remains ‘concerning’
One year after Sheikh Hasina’s ouster, Bangladesh remains gripped by political and social instability. Election-related disputes, rising mob violence, attacks on opposition groups, and growing hostility toward minority communities have all intensified under Yunus.
Yunus is locked in a standoff with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), led by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia. The BNP is pushing for elections in either December or February, while Yunus has insisted they won’t take place before April.
Meanwhile, the interim government has opened political space for Islamist groups once heavily suppressed under Hasina. At the same time, student leaders who led the 2024 uprising have launched a new political party, demanding deep electoral reforms and even a rewritten constitution. They've warned that no election will be accepted unless those demands are met, AP reported.
Meanwhile, many hardline Islamists have either fled prison or have been released, and the Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’s largest Islamist party, which has a controversial past, is now aspiring to a role in government.
It often bitterly criticises the BNP, equating it with Hasina’s Awami League, and recently held a massive rally in Dhaka as a show of power. Critics fear that the greater influence of the Islamist forces could fragment Bangladesh's political landscape further.
(With inputs from agencies)
- The importance of asserting citizenship rights over religious identity in minority communities.
- The impact of political instability on the safety of religious minorities.
- The role of international observation in monitoring human rights violations.