Five Houses of Hindu Family Set Ablaze in Bangladesh; Families Escape Through Tin Walls as Doors Locked from Outside

Five suspects arrested in Pirojpur district arson attack; victims forced to cut through bamboo fencing to escape; India expresses serious concern over minority persecution

Dhaka/New Delhi, December 30, 2025 – In yet another horrifying incident targeting religious minorities in Bangladesh, at least five houses belonging to Hindu families were set on fire in Dumritala village of Pirojpur district in the early hours of December 28, forcing terrified residents to break through walls and fences to escape as attackers had locked their doors from the outside.

The coordinated arson attack occurred around 6:30 am on Saturday, targeting members of the Saha family—Palash Kanti Saha, Shib Saha, Dipak Saha, Shyamalendu Saha, and Ashok Saha—in Paschim Dumritala village under Pirojpur Sadar Upazila in southern Bangladesh.

Harrowing Escape from Death Trap

According to affected family members, attackers stuffed cloth into rooms and set them ablaze, causing the fire to spread rapidly through the closely-built homes. The eight members of the two families woke up to find their houses engulfed in flames and thick smoke filling the air.

“We tried to open the doors but they wouldn’t budge—they had been locked from outside,” said one of the survivors in interviews with local media. “We had no choice but to cut through the tin sheets and bamboo fencing of the boundary walls to escape. A few more minutes and we would have been dead.”

An elderly family member, Sandhya Saha, first noticed the fire when she stepped outside in the early morning and raised an alarm. Despite the narrow escape, the families lost everything—furniture, cash, land documents, educational certificates, and all household belongings were reduced to ashes.

Videos of the incident that went viral on social media show neighbors desperately attempting to douse the flames with buckets of water, but the fire had already consumed the structures before fire service personnel could arrive.

Five Suspects Arrested, Investigation Underway

Mohammad Manzur Ahmed Siddiqui, Superintendent of Police of Pirojpur district, visited the scene and assured victims that a thorough investigation would be conducted promptly. Five suspects have been arrested in connection with the arson attack, according to police sources.

Jugol Biswas, Warehouse Inspector of the Pirojpur Fire Service and Civil Defence Station, stated that the exact cause of the fire had not yet been officially confirmed, though preliminary investigations strongly suggest deliberate arson. “The cause of the fire will be determined conclusively after the investigation is completed,” Biswas said.

Local residents pointed out that this was not an isolated incident. Several houses in a neighboring area were also destroyed in a suspicious fire two years ago, and the pattern of attacks has created deep fear and insecurity among the Hindu community in the region.

“These are not accidents. The pattern is clear—they lock us inside and set our homes on fire. This is targeted violence,” said a Hindu community leader in Pirojpur who requested anonymity for safety reasons.

Escalating Pattern of Violence Against Minorities

The Pirojpur incident is part of a disturbing surge in attacks on religious minorities, particularly Hindus, since the ouster of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in August 2024 during the July Revolution. Bangladesh’s Hindu population, comprising approximately eight percent of the country’s 170 million people, has faced a wave of violence that human rights organizations have described as systematic persecution.

Just days before the Pirojpur attack, seven houses belonging to Hindu families were torched in similar fashion in Raozan sub-district near Chattogram. In those attacks as well, assailants locked families inside their homes before setting them ablaze, forcing victims to tear through walls to survive.

Raozan Police Station Officer-in-Charge Sajedul Islam confirmed that five suspects were arrested in those attacks, and authorities had formed special security teams to enhance protection in affected neighborhoods. “We held meetings with local influential figures to promote interfaith harmony and vigilance against perpetrators of these heinous crimes,” Islam stated.

However, residents expressed skepticism about official assurances. “We hear the same words every time,” said a Hindu shopkeeper in Raozan. “The houses burn. Officials visit. Promises are made. Then silence. And then another attack.”

Lynching of Dipu Chandra Das Sparks Nationwide Outrage

The arson attacks come in the wake of the brutal lynching and burning of Dipu Chandra Das, a 28-year-old Hindu garment worker, on December 18 in Bhaluka Upazila, Mymensingh district, over allegations of blasphemy. Das had sought police protection after being accused of making derogatory remarks, but instead was expelled from his workplace and handed over to an Islamist mob.

His body was publicly suspended and set on fire by religious extremists in an incident that shocked the nation and drew international condemnation. At least 12 people have been arrested in connection with Das’s murder, and the interim government led by Muhammad Yunus has pledged to take responsibility for the welfare of Das’s minor child, wife, and parents.

The violence has further intensified following the December 18 death of Sharif Osman Hadi, a leader of Inqilab Mancha, who succumbed to gunshot injuries in Singapore after being shot by masked assailants in Dhaka. On the evening of his death, mobs set fire to the offices of The Daily Star and Prothom Alo newspapers, and attacked cultural institutions including Chhayanot and Udichi Shilpi Goshti.

India’s Strong Diplomatic Response

India’s Ministry of External Affairs has expressed “serious concern” over the escalating violence against religious minorities in Bangladesh. On Friday, December 27, the MEA condemned attacks on Hindus, Christians, and Buddhists, citing specific incidents including the lynching of Das and the Pirojpur arson attacks.

The Vishva Hindu Parishad and other Hindu organizations staged protests outside the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi, demanding immediate protection for minorities and accountability for perpetrators. International observers, including the United Kingdom Parliament and human rights groups, have raised alarms over the interim government’s inability to curb mob violence.

Exiled Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen, a prominent voice for secularism, sharply criticized the Muhammad Yunus-led interim administration. “Yunus is just playing the flute while minorities burn,” she wrote on social media, condemning what she described as the government’s passive response to escalating religious extremism.

Political Vacuum and Rise of Extremism

Analysts trace the current crisis to the political vacuum created after the July 2024 uprising that forced Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resign and flee to India. A New York Times analysis noted that radical rightwing forces have exploited the instability to assert themselves, while The Guardian described how “hope is fading” as mobs bring violence back to Bangladesh’s streets.

Rights group Ain o Salish Kendra reported that at least 184 people have been killed in mob violence across Bangladesh in 2024, while Amnesty International condemned the trend and urged the interim government to ensure accountability through fair trials.

The Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council documented 2,010 incidents of attacks on minorities between August 4-20, 2024, including attacks on 69 temples, with five Hindus killed in confirmed attacks. The United Nations Human Rights Office has noted that abuses have also affected Ahmadiyya Muslims and indigenous people from the Chittagong Hill Tracts.

Government Response Questioned

While the Yunus-led interim government has pledged to protect minorities and stated that “allegations, rumours or differences of belief can never excuse violence,” critics argue that rhetoric has not translated into effective action on the ground.

Local police in affected areas have increased patrols and announced rewards for information leading to arrests, as seen in the Chattogram cases where Deputy Inspector General Ahsan Habib offered an undisclosed bounty for identifying arsonists. However, the frequency and brazen nature of attacks suggest that enforcement mechanisms remain inadequate.

Bangladesh’s interim administration has rejected India’s concerns as “misleading” and denied systematic persecution of Hindus, claiming that many incidents have political rather than communal motivations. However, the pattern of attacks—targeting homes and temples, locking victims inside before setting fires, and invoking religious slogans—points to deliberate communal violence according to human rights observers.

Community Living in Fear

The repeated targeting of Hindu families has created an atmosphere of terror in villages across Bangladesh. Many families are considering fleeing their ancestral homes, while others are organizing community watch systems for protection.

“We don’t know who will be next,” said a Hindu teacher in Pirojpur who lost relatives in the recent attack. “Every night we sleep with fear. Every morning we wake up wondering if today will be the day our house burns. This is not how we should have to live.”

Social media posts from affected areas describe the violence as “narokiyo tandob”—barbaric terror—and question whether minorities are safe in their own country. “We survived this time,” one victim stated simply. “But we don’t know about the next fire.”

International human rights organizations have called for urgent intervention to protect Bangladesh’s vulnerable minority communities. As elections approach and political tensions escalate, concerns are mounting that violence against minorities could intensify further unless the interim government takes decisive action to restore rule of law and protect all citizens regardless of their religious identity.

The Pirojpur victims, meanwhile, are left homeless and traumatized, their entire lives reduced to ashes. Police investigations continue, but for families who barely escaped with their lives by cutting through walls while flames engulfed their homes, the question remains: Will justice ever come, or will they simply become another forgotten statistic in Bangladesh’s escalating humanitarian crisis?