BBC Photo: Sahar Zand with Jakesh Chongraray in his living room, attacked and set alight by a mob
BBC’s fact-finding reports on violent attacks on Bangladeshi minorities
- BBC reporter Sahar Zand travels to Bangladesh to uncover the heartbreaking truth
In the aftermath of Bangladesh’s political unrest and the student-led protests that led to the collapse of Sheikh Hasina’s government in August 2024, the country is facing a period of transition and uncertainty. Amid the chaos, harrowing videos and reports of violent attacks against the Hindu minority flooded social media—images of burning buildings, horrifying violence, and women weeping as they pleaded for help. However, some began to doubt the veracity and authenticity of these videos after they seemed to be sensationalized by right-wing influencers and news outlets in neighbouring India. Despite this, shocking new videos of alleged attacks continue to appear on social media, with little or no acknowledgment from a world that is now questioning their legitimacy.
In this context, BBC reporter Sahar Zand travels to Bangladesh to investigate the truth behind the contradictory news headlines and the contrasting videos emerging daily online. There, Sahar follows two Hindu university students, Sukanto and Banamali, who have made it their mission to verify and document what they describe as brutal assaults on their community, determined to set the record straight. Sahar follows Sukanto and Banamali as they travel to some of the worst-affected areas, witnessing firsthand accounts of homes burned, families separated, temples desecrated, and entire villages torn apart by mob violence. Despite their tireless efforts to report the truth, the two friends say that the Hindu experience in Bangladesh has been met with silence from both the world's media and the country's authorities.
Following the visit, Sahar produced a fact-finding documentary for BBC World Service’s Heart & Soul, which was broadcast in two episodes on 3 January and 5 January 2025. In this in-depth documentary, she reveals that the attacks aren’t just aimed at buildings. Sahar meets victims, including an elderly village doctor recovering from an attempted murder and a grieving mother whose 14-year-old son was killed trying to escape the country. The activists take Sahar to a nearly destroyed temple complex, its idols looted and desecrated. The site’s president implicates the Bangladesh National Party (BNP) and Jamaat-e-Islami for the attacks, revealing political motivations behind the violence.
The documentary also touches upon the rise of Islamism in Bangladesh in recent years, highlighting the harmful rhetoric by some Islamic leaders, which many activists and victims say have been fueling the tension. In a tense interview, Sahar confronts Mahmudul Hasan Gunovi, a far-right Islamist leader accused of fueling the violence with his inflammatory rhetoric. Gunovi, linked to a banned terrorist organization and previously imprisoned for inciting violence, faces Sahar’s probing questions and refusal to accept evasive answers, exposing the dangerous influence fueling the violence against the Hindu minority. The documentary concludes with a volatile encounter when Banamali and Sukanto visit a sensitive site, where a Hindu crematorium has recently been destroyed, and a makeshift mosque built on its ruins. The situation escalates into violence, revealing a terrifying picture of the reality of the tension engulfing Bangladesh.
Link to the documentary: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct5tg8
