Injustice in Plain Sight: The Arrest of Chinmoy Prabhu Exposes Deeper Crisis in Minority Rights

In today’s Bangladesh, being a Hindu, Ahmadiyya, Christian, or Buddhist is not just a matter of faith—it’s a risk to life, liberty, and dignity. Since the collapse of Sheikh Hasina’s regime in August 2024, the so-called "interim government" led by Muhammad Yunus has allowed, enabled, and arguably orchestrated a nationwide assault on religious minorities. The brutality is not random. It is strategic, systematic, and state-enabled.

Temples are burning. Ahmadiyya villages & mosques are under siege. Minority leaders are being jailed under fabricated charges. And the message is clear: Speak out, and you will be crushed.

Minorities fear targeted attacks in post-revolution Bangladesh

Nowhere is this more evident than in the government's relentless persecution of Hindu spiritual leader Chinmoy Krishna Das—first jailed for “insulting the flag,” then slapped with multiple murder charges the moment a court dared to grant him bail. His real crime? Daring to protest the regime’s silence on anti-minority violence.

Meanwhile, Islamist mobs roam freely, chanting for the constitutional exclusion of Ahmadis, torching their homes, and demanding they be declared non-Muslims by law—echoing the darkest chapters of Pakistan’s history. The police? Silent. The courts? Complicit. The government? Cowardly or culpable—likely both.

This is not just lawlessness. This is a betrayal of the nation’s founding ideals—a betrayal being carried out by the very people who claimed to rise from a student movement demanding justice.

This article will lay out the evidence, name the enablers, and call this horror by its rightful name: a state-facilitated campaign of religious cleansing.

State-Sponsored Silence: A Government That Looks Away—or Looks On Approvingly

What’s more dangerous than mobs with torches? A government that hands them the match.

Since taking power in August 2024, the interim government of Bangladesh—propped up by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus—has done little more than issue hollow denials and shrug off atrocities committed against minorities. While Ahmadiyya homes were razed, Hindu women raped, and churches vandalized, Yunus and his cabinet stood paralyzed—or worse, complicit. Their silence is not neutrality; it is an endorsement.

This is not a case of bureaucratic delay or administrative chaos. It is willful inaction in the face of targeted communal terror. When Islamists demanded that 23 legitimate legal cases filed by Ahmadiyyas be withdrawn, the state didn’t reinforce justice—it began “negotiations.” When mobs in Panchagarh called for Ahmadis to be declared non-Muslims by constitutional decree, the government did not rebuke them—it allowed rallies to grow louder.

Bangladeshi Ahmadiyyas targeted by hate campaign

And when Chinmoy Krishna Das, a revered Hindu monk, peacefully protested against minority persecution, he was thrown in jail on laughable charges of sedition. When the courts finally dared to grant him bail, he was suddenly “shown arrested” in four murder cases—without evidence, without investigation, and without the presence of his lawyers. If that isn’t weaponized judiciary, what is?

Hindu priest Chinmoy Krishna Das shown arrested in four murder cases

It’s not the end. Over 2,000 attacks on minorities in just two weeks after the regime change. Another 174 between August and December. Several murdered and countless women raped. Properties looted, temples desecrated, and churches destroyed. And through it all, the government blames “politics”—as if that excuses systematic persecution.

Minority leaders are being framed, jailed, and harassed. State institutions, once seen as protectors of the people, now act as blunt instruments of fear. Peaceful protestors are locked away, while violent mobs roam free. Police refuse to file complaints. Courts drag their feet. Victims become villains.

And in all of this chaos, the government dares to say the violence is “political”—a sickening attempt to erase the religious and ethnic undertones of a campaign that is erasing Bangladesh’s diverse identity.

Bangladesh minority rights group accuses interim government of failing to protect minorities

Let’s call it what it is: state-enabled persecution. A regime that fails to protect is already guilty. But a regime that punishes victims and empowers attackers? That is criminal governance.

In Yunus’s Bangladesh, the rule of law has been replaced by the rule of fear. The police refuse to accept complaints from victims. Prosecutors invent new cases. Judges go silent. And while minority leaders are hunted like criminals, Islamist agitators roam free, untouchable, unaccountable, unstoppable.

This is not a crisis. This is a purge. A calculated, creeping genocide against Bangladesh’s religious minorities.

The world must stop pretending this is business as usual. It is not. The longer we stay silent, the more graves are dug. The more temples are torched. The more voices are extinguished. And soon, the idea of a pluralistic Bangladesh will be nothing more than a memory buried under the rubble of its own hypocrisy.