‘Pranto Das Gupta, a 22-year-old from Bangladesh’s minority Hindu group, is getting ready to forged his first vote within the upcoming nationwide elections. Dwelling in Dhaka, round 300 km from his ancestral village in Satkania, Chattogram, Mr. Gupta plans to journey house to vote together with his household on February 12, because the nation heads into its first election because the dramatic fall of Sheikh Hasina in an rebellion in August 2024.
For the first-time voter, the lofty guarantees in get together manifestos from trillion-dollar economies to constitutional reform ring hole in opposition to the lived actuality of arson, vandalism and intimidation.
“We don’t need clashes. We don’t need guarantees. All we ask for is security,” Mr. Gupta stated. “Individuals in my village will go to the polling centres and vote for whoever they suppose can guarantee their security.”
This plea for primary safety has emerged because the overwhelming, non-partisan demand of spiritual minorities, who make up roughly 10% of the inhabitants, as marketing campaign rallies intensify and polling day attracts nearer.
In accordance with a current report by the Human Rights Assist Society (HRSS), no less than 56 focused assaults on minority communities had been recorded within the 17 months main as much as the election. These incidents included the desecration of temples, vandalism of properties, and bodily assaults, leaving one particular person useless and 27 injured. Transparency Worldwide Bangladesh reported greater than 50 such assaults in 2025, whereas Ain-e-Salish Kendra documented 42 incidents.
The Chief Adviser’s Workplace, nevertheless, has supplied a special evaluation. It stated that of the 645 incidents involving minority group members recorded in 2025, solely 71 had been communal in nature, whereas the remaining circumstances had been linked to normal prison exercise.
Regardless of the official reassurances, concern stays pervasive. “Just a few folks from our group are concerned in politics,” stated Raghupati Sen, a trustee of an area ashram in Outdated Dhaka’s Tikatuli space. “Politicians come asking for votes, however who comes to guard our properties and temples when assaults occur?”
“For us,” he added, “the election just isn’t about who wins. It’s about whether or not we’ll lose no matter safety we nonetheless have.”
This election cycle has been particularly tense. Whereas clashes between the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami dominate headlines, minorities describe a quieter however persistent nervousness. Main political blocs have made rhetorical overtures; the BNP’s manifesto guarantees minority safety, whereas the Jamaat-e-Islami alliance speaks of constructing a “humane Bangladesh.” But critics stated that these events, now locked in fierce rivalry, have additionally histories the place communal rhetoric has been weaponised, and their ground-level activists had been usually implicated in localised intimidation.
Following the August 2024 rebellion, organised mobs focused Hindu neighbourhoods in a number of components of the nation. The group has lengthy been perceived as supportive of the Awami League, which projected itself as secular however confronted criticism for failing to stop assaults on minorities throughout its tenure. The Awami League has been barred from contesting this election, but minority voters say their participation stays necessary. This correspondent spoke to greater than a dozen voters from minority communities, all of whom stated they supposed to vote.
“Minorities have all the time been victims of violence in Bangladesh,” stated Abhi Chowdhury Partho, a university instructor in Dhaka. “Even throughout Sheikh Hasina’s rule, we noticed assaults throughout festivals. Concern didn’t disappear then, and it has not disappeared now.”
He stated this persistent insecurity is shaping voting behaviour. In lots of minority-dominated areas, there’s dialogue of “strategic voting” selecting candidates perceived as much less more likely to provoke violence somewhat than these providing formidable guarantees.
The authorities plan to deploy an enormous safety equipment, with practically 9 lac personnel, together with greater than 1 lac members of the armed forces, guarding polling centres between February 8 and 14. However Mr. Partho questioned whether or not safety would lengthen past polling day. “Who will stand guard on February 14, or the week after, if somebody desires to retaliate for the way we voted?” he requested.
A current report by the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council (BHBCUC) stated communal violence stays ongoing. Primarily based on knowledge collected as much as January 27, 2026, the council recorded 42 incidents, together with homicide, sexual violence, assaults on temples and church buildings, looting of properties and companies, and land grabbing.
Monindra Kumar Nath, Appearing Normal Secretary of BHBCUC, stated concern continues to dominate minority communities’ psyche because the thirteenth parliamentary election approaches. “Throughout the nation, non secular and ethnic minorities, particularly ladies and younger folks, live in fixed nervousness,” he stated.
Final week, the council positioned eight calls for earlier than the authorities, urging the Election Fee (EC) to make sure a degree taking part in discipline and a safe setting so minority voters and candidates can take part with out obstruction.
Nonetheless, Election Commissioner Abdur Rahmanel Masud on February 6 known as on members of minority communities to go to polling centres with out concern. He stated the EC had made full safety preparations for them, and all preparations are in place to carry a free and truthful election.
In complete, 79 candidates from non secular and ethnic minority communities are contesting the election, 67 get together nominees and 12 independents. The Communist Occasion of Bangladesh has fielded the very best quantity (17), adopted by the BNP with six, whereas Jamaat-e-Islami has nominated a minority candidate for the primary time. Ten of the candidates are ladies.
The variety of minority candidates stays unchanged from 2018 and is barely decrease than the 81 recorded in 2024. Hindus make up practically 8% of Bangladesh’s inhabitants, with Christians, Buddhists, and different minorities accounting for smaller shares.
Printed – February 07, 2026 09:53 pm IST