Bangladeshi Hindu Student Who Went Missing Found Dead In River

The body of a college student was recovered from a river in Bangladesh’s Naogaon district on Saturday, local media reported.

According to The Daily Agrajatra Pratidin, the body was found in a river near

the Kalitala cremation ground in Naogaon town on Saturday afternoon. The identity of the deceased could not be established initially.

The report said the body was later identified as Abhi, a student of the Management Department at a government college in the district. He was studying in the fourth year of his honours course.

Abhi was the son of Ramesh Chandra, a resident of Santahar in Adamdighi upazila of Bogura district. His family said he had gone missing on January 11 after leaving home following an argument.

After the discovery of the body, news spread on social media, prompting Abhi’s family, who had been searching for him for the past seven days, to rush to the riverbank. Family members identified the body based on the clothes he was wearing when he left home, the report said.

Accidental Or Foul Play

The circumstances leading to Abhi’s death remain unclear. Family members and local residents have raised questions over whether the death was accidental or involved foul play.

Abhi’s father told local media that the family had searched relatives’ houses and other possible locations before filing a general diary at Adamdighi police station when they failed to locate him.

Naogaon Sadar police station officer-in-charge Niamul Islam said the body has been sent for post-mortem examination. He said the cause of death would be determined after the autopsy report is received, according to The Daily Agrajatra Pratidin.

Rising Attacks On Hindus

The incident comes amid growing concern over attacks on minorities in Bangladesh.

Earlier this month, India urged Bangladesh to deal firmly with communal incidents after at least five Hindu men were killed in hostile circumstances in recent weeks.

“We continue to witness a disturbing pattern of recurring attacks on minorities as well as their homes and businesses by extremists,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in New Delhi. He said such incidents must be dealt with “swiftly and firmly”, warning that there has been a troubling tendency to attribute communal attacks to personal rivalries or political differences. “Such disregard only emboldens the perpetrators and deepens the sense of fear and insecurity among minorities,” Jaiswal said.

Among the recent cases, a 25-year-old Hindu man, Mithun Sarkar, died earlier this week in Naogaon district after jumping into a canal while trying to escape a mob that accused him of theft. Sarkar drowned while fleeing the attackers, according to Kajol Debnath, spokesperson of the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council.

Others killed in recent weeks include Moni Chakraborty, a 40-year-old grocery shop owner who was murdered on January 5 in Palash Upazila, and Rana Pratap Bairagi, a 38-year-old ice factory owner and acting editor of Dainik BD Khabar, who was shot dead in Jessore the same day. Khokon Chandra Das, 50, was hacked and set on fire on December 31 and later died in hospital.

The council has also cited the lynching of Dipu Chandra Das, an incident that drew international attention.