The murder of 55-year-old shopkeeper Liton Chandra Ghosh on Saturday at the Kaliganj area of Bangladesh's Ghazipur has sparked widespread concerns for the safety of Hindus in the country.
Ghosh is the latest in a long list of Hindu men killed amid unrest in Bangladesh over the death of Sharif Osman Hadi, the leader of the radical party Inquilab Mancha, which played an important role in the ouster of ex-PM Sheikh Hasina.
A family of three—Mohammad Swapan Miah (55), his wife Majeda Khatun (45) and their son Masum Miah (28)—has been arrested in connection with the murder of the shopkeeper at the Baisakhi Sweetmeat and Hotel.
The murder reportedly took place after Ghosh tried to defend a teenager working at his restaurant, who had got into an argument with Masum.
This led to the 28-year-old and his family attacking Ghosh, and allegedly ended with them hitting his head with a shovel, which reportedly killed him.
This comes just a day after the murder of 30-year-old Ripon Saha, an employee at a petrol pump in Bangladesh's Rajbari. Notably, the area has also seen the mob-led killing of 29-year-old Hindu man Amrit Mondal (alias Samrat) in December 2025.
According to a News18 report, he had filled petrol in an SUV worth Tk 5,000. After filling it, the SUV owner—allegedly a senior politician—tried to drive away without paying for the petrol.
When Saha allegedly blocked the car, the driver ran over him, which led to his death.
In the meantime, ousted ex-PM Sheikh Hasina's Awami League attacked the Muhammad Yunus-led interim government over the unrest in Bangladesh, in what is the party's first press conference since her exit.
Calling the upcoming February 12 elections a "well-planned farce", former Dhaka Foreign Minister and Awami League leader Hasan Mahmud declared in the Delhi presser that stability would never return to Bangladesh without Hasina's party included in the elections.
"If an election is held by banning the party that led the independence struggle of Bangladesh and ruled the country multiple times ... [it] will only increase permanent instability in Bangladesh," he said, as per an Indian Express Bengali report.
He also claimed that the party would return to power in Bangladesh under Sheikh Hasina itself.