A young Hindu tea garden worker’s blood-soaked body was found with his hands and legs tied in the Moulvibazar area of northeast Bangladesh, a media report said Thursday (February 12, 2026).
Ahead of the voting for the 13th parliamentary elections in the country, this is the second murder of a Hindu person in as many days.
Police recovered the body of 28-year-old Ratan Shuvo Kar from the tea garden about 200 km northeast of Dhaka on Wednesday (February 11, 2026). He was a worker of Champara Tea Garden under Islampur union, The Daily Star reported, quoting Kamalganj police station officer-in-charge Abdul Awal.
Locals spotted the body in the garden around 10 a.m. and informed authorities, the report said. The said the body bore visible injury marks.
Ratan’s elder brother, Laxman Kar, said the family had been searching for him. “This morning (Wednesday), we were informed that his body was lying in the garden. We went there and identified him. We do not know why he was killed,” he said.
The body was sent to Moulvibazar Sadar Hospital for an autopsy, said Mr. Awal, adding that an investigation is underway to identify those involved.
Some locals speculated about possible links to the election, though no evidence was found in this regard, The Daily Star said.
The Hindu population in Bangladesh has faced a series of attacks, some fatal, after the killing of radical youth leader Sharif Osman Hadi in December. On Monday, 62-year-old Hindu trader Susen Chandra Sarkar was hacked to death by unidentified men inside his shop at the Bogar Bazar intersection in Trishal upazila of Mymensingh. Sarkar was a resident of Southkanda village, police said, adding, the attackers hacked him with a sharp weapon, left him inside the shop, and closed the shutters.
There have been at least 15 targeted murders of Hindu minority individuals in a 45-day period, the South Asia Forum for Freedom of Religion Belief said in a statement on Tuesday (February 10, 2026).
In January, the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council alleged that communal violence has increased at an alarming rate in the country in the wake of the elections. The council said it recorded 51 incidents of communal violence in December 2025.
According to the 2022 census, Bangladesh has nearly 13.13 million Hindus, about 7.95% of the country’s total population.
Published – February 12, 2026 04:03 pm IST
