Dhaka: Instances of Hindu girls, mostly minors, being kidnapped by Muslims are on the rise in Bangladesh, with little intervention from the Bangladeshi government or international authorities to address the issue.
In a recent incident reported from Comilla District, two men abducted two Hindu girls, both minors and cousins, from a street near their home in Telikona Sahapara under the Kotwali Model Police Station area. The victims were identified as Bristi Rani Saha (16) and Laboni Saha (17).
The complaint, filed on July 4, states that Muhammad Sojib Miyan and Muhammad Shakil, along with others, were involved in the abduction. Brishti's mother, Sima Rani Saha, alleged that after the abduction, Shakil and his accomplices posted "Mission done" on social media.
Despite filing a complaint, the police have been inactive in tracing the girls and bringing them back. Surprisingly, this case has not received much attention in Bangladesh's mainstream media and has been largely ignored by international press outlets. Only a few mid-sized news sites in India and a Twitter post by the Hindu organization Hindu Voice covered the incident, leading to limited awareness about the crime both within and outside the country.
Unfortunately, there has been a significant increase in such cases in recent months, with Hindu girls being abducted by Muslims. For instance, a 13-year-old girl named Aishi Saha was kidnapped from Barishal in May, and although she was later recovered from Dhaka, she had been forcibly converted to Islam. Similarly, in the present twin abduction case, the girls' family suspects that their daughters might have been kidnapped with the intention of forcibly converting them to Islam and marrying them off to their abductors, following a troubling trend similar to that seen in Pakistan.
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