The abduction of a 17-year-old Hindu girl hailing from Kaliganj Bazar has created alarm within the minority Hindu community of southern Bangladesh. The girl, Brishti Saha, is said to have been taken away against her will by some Muslims in Barishal district on 6th November 2025. Despite the family’s prompt report to the police, nothing has been done yet to locate the girl.
The girl’s father lodged a First Information Report (FIR) with the police implicating a number of people, one of whom, was named as Md. Sam Majhi (19), and others as Md. Mahabub Majhi (45), Kohinoor Begum, and Md. Moon Majhi (21), who allegedly abducted the girl in a battery-operated vehicle near their house. The family, relatives, and onlookers attempted to intervene, but according to the eyewitness, they ran away towards Barishal town. The family suspects the abduction was meant to enforce the minor’s conversion to Islam and marriage, which is the same story that has terrified the right groups that are monitoring the safety of women from minority backgrounds in Bangladesh.
Local observers and activists point out that such occurrences are not singular. There have been a number of cases reported in Barishal, Khulna, and Sylhet regions where young Hindu as well as other minority girls have similar fates of disappearing and then surfacing with “voluntary conversion” or marriage claims, which were actually the outcomes of coercion and intimidation according to families.
These repeating events have instilled fear among Hindu families, especially in rural and semi-urban regions. In fact, Hindu parents often limit their daughters’ movements and education because of the threat of abduction that is assumed. Moreover, a lot of families are reporting having a hard time getting law enforcement to do a proper and quick investigation, which enhances their feeling of unsecure.
Human-rights advocates in Bangladesh have on several occasions mounted pressure for the implementation of comprehensive child-protection and anti-trafficking laws pointing out that the law does not allow any religious conversion or marriage involving a minor. They are asking the authorities to ensure that Brishti Saha is safely retrieved and the culprits punished.
The case of Brishti Saha serves as a reminder of the urgent requirement for effective measures to be put in place for the protection of girls at risk of being exploited and coerced. Without strict legal enforcement and public accountability, the lives of minority families in Bangladesh will continue to be marked by fear, a fear that no citizen in a society should have to experience.
