Kolkata, 16 January (H.S.) : The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday shared a video showing the house of a Hindu school teacher being set on fire in Bangladesh and drew a comparison with incidents of violence reported earlier in West Bengal’s minority-dominated Murshidabad district.

The video, reportedly from Gowainghat in Bangladesh’s Sylhet district, was shared on social media by BJP Information Technology cell head and the party’s central observer for West Bengal, Amit Malviya. He claimed that the teacher’s house was burnt solely because he belonged to the Hindu community.

In his post, Malviya alleged that the incident in Bangladesh mirrored the pattern of violence witnessed in Murshidabad last year during protests against the Waqf (Amendment) Act, when Hindu households were allegedly selectively targeted. Referring to the video, he said the house of teacher Birendra Kumar Dey, also known as “Jhunu Sir,” was deliberately set on fire in Gowainghat, Sylhet. According to Malviya, the incident was not an act of random violence but a case of targeted persecution.

Drawing further parallels, Malviya warned that if Hindu Bengalis in West Bengal failed to recognise the threat in time, they could face a situation similar to the violence that occurred in Murshidabad’s Samserganj last year. He referred to the lynching of Hargobindo Das and his son Chandan Das during those riots, describing it as a grim reminder of what could happen if such issues were ignored.

He also stated that the violence against Hindus in Bangladesh should be seen as a warning signal for the Hindu community in West Bengal.

The BJP leader’s remarks come amid reports of several recent incidents of violence against minority Hindus in Bangladesh. Last month, the killing of a Hindu garment factory worker, Dipu Chandra Das, triggered protests in various parts of India, with demonstrations reported from Delhi to Kolkata and from Bhopal to Hyderabad.

Hindusthan Samachar / Satya Prakash Singh