Bangladesh's fact-checking body, BanglaFact, has debunked the recent claim by the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Oikya Parishad (BHBCOP) that 11 people were killed in a total of 92 incidents of violence targeting minority communities in January and February of this year.
In a recent press release, the BHBCOP claimed that 11 people were killed in 92 incidents of violence targeting "minorities and indigenous people" during the first two months of 2025.
However, BanglaFact and the media research team of the Press Institute Bangladesh (PIB) found no reliable evidence to support the claim that religious minorities were specifically "targeted" in these attacks or that the victims were subjected to violence due to communal hatred.
Acting General Secretary of Oikya Parishad Manindra Kumar Nath, provided BanglaFact with two reports: a 39-page Documentary on Communal Violence: January 2025 and a 42-page Documentary on Communal Violence: February 2025.
These reports included incidents of violence, theft, and robbery affecting minority communities.
However, none of the news articles cited in the reports contained allegations of communal violence.
BanglaFact reviewed the killings by analyzing the sources of the reports, related news articles, statements from the victims’ relatives, and information from the police stations involved.
Preliminary findings indicate that out of the 11 killings, three were due to previous enmity, six resulted from theft and robbery, one was linked to kidnapping, and one remains of unknown cause.
No communal link was found in any of these cases, and even the victims' families did not allege communal motives behind the killings.
