In the week before Bangladesh's national elections, reports of harassment and pressure targeting Hindu voters have emerged from across the country, raising concerns about minority safety as Jamaat-e-Islami surges in pre-election surveys.
One Hindu voter's detailed account, shared on social media and verified by local reporters, describes two encounters with Jamaat supporters in Dhaka that illustrate broader patterns of intimidation masked as political outreach.
The voter, a university student who requested anonymity for safety reasons, described being cornered on a bus by a man identifying himself as a retired navy officer and Jamaat supporter. What began as a question about voting intentions turned into a 30-minute attempted conversion to Islam, complete with theological arguments and claims that "Hindus should vote for Jamaat for security and religious safety."
Two days later, the same voter encountered a young Jamaat supporter who launched into a tirade against women without hijabs, calling them "prostitutes" and declaring that "higher education makes girls immoral."
"The whole encounter was extremely annoying," the voter wrote. "I don't know what will happen to our country, but I hope people from every community work together to make it safer and more democratic."
The account reflects broader anxieties among Bangladesh's Hindu minority, which comprises roughly 8 percent of the country's 170 million people—about 13.6 million individuals. That's more than the entire population of Belgium.
Historically, Hindus in Bangladesh have faced periodic violence, particularly during election seasons when communal tensions rise. The community has steadily declined as a percentage of the population, from 28 percent at partition in 1947 to today's 8 percent, driven by both emigration and demographic change.
Jamaat-e-Islami's surge among first-time voters—37.4 percent according to a recent CRF survey—has amplified these concerns. The party opposed Bangladesh's independence in 1971 and several of its leaders have been convicted of atrocities against Hindus during the Liberation War, when an estimated 2.4 million Hindus were specifically targeted alongside Bengali Muslims.
"We're watching a deeply troubling pattern," said Rana Dasgupta, general secretary of the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council. "Jamaat workers are engaging in what they call 'political outreach' but what minorities experience as intimidation."
Jamaat officials reject accusations of systematic harassment, arguing that the party has explicitly committed to protecting minority rights. "We are a political party seeking votes from all communities," said Matiur Rahman Akand, a Jamaat spokesperson. "Isolated incidents don't represent party policy."
But human rights monitors have documented multiple reports of pressure tactics in Hindu-majority neighborhoods. These include:
• Door-to-door campaigns where Jamaat workers ask Hindu families about their voting intentions and argue that supporting Jamaat is in their "best interest"
• Veiled threats about what might happen to minority communities if they don't support "the right party"
• Social media campaigns claiming that Jamaat, despite its history, is now the "only party" that can protect minorities from "Awami League tyranny"
The claims play on real grievances. Bangladesh's Hindu community has faced violence under governments of all stripes, including during periods of Awami League rule. Land grabbing, temple attacks, and forced conversions persist regardless of which party holds power.
"That's what makes this insidious," said Dr. Meghna Guhathakurta, a researcher at the Centre for Genocide Studies in Dhaka. "Jamaat is exploiting genuine minority frustrations while obscuring their own historical role in anti-Hindu violence."
The harassment accounts also reveal tactics aimed at young voters. The retired navy officer who attempted to convert the Hindu student represented a calculated approach: using respected social positions (military service) to lend credibility to Jamaat messaging.
Similarly, the young Jamaat supporter's misogynistic outburst—delivered while wearing modern clothing himself—reflects how the party attracts young men by offering them moral authority over women and non-Muslims, even as supporters themselves live secular lifestyles.
Bangladesh's Election Commission has called for peaceful campaigning and warned parties against intimidation. But with just days until voting, enforcement remains weak. Police are deployed for major rallies but rarely intervene in one-on-one interactions like those described by Hindu voters.
Civil society organizations have called for election observers to specifically monitor minority-majority polling stations and for rapid response teams to address intimidation reports.
"Elections should be about choosing leaders, not about communities feeling threatened," said Sultana Kamal, a Supreme Court lawyer and human rights activist. "If Hindu voters feel they must support Jamaat out of fear rather than conviction, that's not democracy—it's coercion."
The international community has largely remained silent on pre-election harassment, focusing instead on overall electoral credibility and turnout. But minority rights groups argue that free and fair elections must include freedom from intimidation.
"A billion people aren't a statistic—they're a billion stories," as the saying goes. For Bangladesh's 13.6 million Hindus, this election will determine whether their stories can be told freely, or whether fear will dictate their choices at the ballot box.
