India condemns killing of Hindu leader Chandra Roy in Bangladesh

India on Saturday condemned the killing of a prominent Hindu community member, Bhabesh Chandra Roy, in Bangladesh, while urging Dhaka to desist from "inventing excuses or making distinctions" on minority safety in the country.

Roy was said to be a prominent Hindu community member in Biral upazila of Dinajpur, Bangladesh. He was allegedly abducted from his home and beaten to death on Thursday.

The victim, Roy, 58, served as the vice-president of the Biral unit of the Bangladesh Puja Udjapan Parishad.

In its reaction to Roy's killing, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson, Randhir Jaiswal, said, "We have noted with distress the abduction and brutal killing of Shri Bhavesh Chandra Roy, a Hindu minority leader in Bangladesh."

"This killing follows a pattern of systematic persecution of Hindu minorities under the interim government even as the perpetrators of previous such events roam with impunity," he said.

The MEA spokesperson added, "We condemn this incident and once again remind the interim government to live up to its responsibility of protecting all minorities, including Hindus, without inventing excuses or making distinctions."

The incident came to fore when India on Friday rejected Bangladesh's remarks calling for "protection against minority Muslim population" in West Bengal and instead urged Dhaka to focus on protecting the rights of its own minorities.

The MEA spokesperson Jaiswal had also said, "We reject the remarks made by the Bangladesh side with regard to the incidents in West Bengal. This is a barely disguised and disingenuous attempt to draw a parallel with India's concerns over the ongoing persecution of minorities in Bangladesh where the criminal perpetrators of such acts continue to roam free."

India had reacted after Bangladesh rejected attempts to link it to the recent communal violence in West Bengal's Murshidabad district. The violence erupted in West Bengal during protests against the Waqf (Amendment) Act and spread across Murshidabad, Malda, South 24 Parganas, and Hooghly, with incidents of arson, stone-pelting, and road blockades. The violence left three people dead, including two Hindu men who were killed by a mob, and a Muslim man who died in the firing by security forces.

Meanwhile, the Congress has condemned the killing of Roy in Bangladesh and said the incident is a "chilling reminder" of the growing sense of insecurity among religious minorities in the country.