A 28-year-old tea worker was reportedly found from a garden in northeastern Bangladesh on the eve of the election, police said on Wednesday.
The deceased was identified as Ratan Shuvo Kar, a worker at Champara Tea Garden under Islampur union in Moulvibazar’s Kamalganj upazila, about 190 km from the capital Dhaka, reported The Daily Star.
Locals found the body around 10 am inside the tea garden and alerted authorities. When police reached the spot, they found that his hands and feet were tied.
Residents said deep wounds were visible on his body, and his hands and legs were tied. Blood was reportedly still oozing from the injuries when he was found. One of them told The Daily Star that Ratan may have been killed elsewhere and the body later dumped in the garden.
The victim’s elder brother, Laxman Kar, said the family had been looking for him since the previous night.
“This morning, we were informed that his body was lying in the garden. We went there and identified him. We do not know why he was killed,” the report added quoting Laxman.
The body was sent to Moulvibazar Sadar Hospital for an autopsy, the OC told The Daily Star, adding that an investigation is underway to identify those involved.
Police have begun an investigation into the killing and are trying to determine whether it was linked to the elections or driven by other motives. So far, no official confirmation has been issued regarding the exact cause or circumstances of the death.
Officials said they are examining all possible angles and gathering evidence to understand what led to the incident. Authorities have not ruled out any possibility at this stage.
Voting begins in Bangladesh
Voting began on 12 February morning in Bangladesh's -- the first since the ouster of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in massive nationwide protests in August 2024.
"After fascist rule people of Bangladesh have found an opportunity to vote," BNP general secretary Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told reporters on Thursday morning. "We hope we can take the country towards economic development and establish good governance in Bangladesh. Some incidents happened at night because some people wanted to stop the election. I am sure they will be defeated."
Yunus, who has promised to quickly transfer power to the elected government, has urged the political parties, candidates and other concerned parties to maintain restraint, tolerance and democratic behaviour on the polling day.
Police said they have provided a list of risk-prone polling centres to the EC, which showed that out of 2,131 polling centres in Dhaka, 1,614 were risk-prone. However, the army said they have identified two centres in Dhaka city to be "risky".
The Daily Star reported "ballot stuffing allegations spark clash between Jamaat and BNP activists" in northeastern Sylhet's Balaganj sub-district where a local Jamaat leader and several others entered a polling centre at around midnight when BNP activists rushed resulting in scuffles requiring security interventions.
The BNP nominee there alleged ballot stamping had begun at 11:00pm with the presiding officer's help.
In capital Dhaka, police arrested a Jamaat leader over buying votes while crude bombs were exploded near seven polling centres in southwestern Gopalganj hours before voting.
No end to violence against Hindus in Dhaka
Bangladesh has witnessed thousands of attacks on minorities since August 2024, including murders, arson, temple desecration, and land seizures.
The incident comes just days after the murder of a Hindu businessman in Mymensingh district. The victim, 62-year-old rice trader Sushen Chandra Sarkar, was attacked by unknown assailants inside his shop.
According to police, the attackers hacked Sarkar with a sharp weapon, shut the shop from outside and fled with lakhs of rupees. He was taken to a hospital but was declared brought dead by doctors.
Earlier, garment worker Dipu Chandra Das was also beaten to death and set on fire after being stripped naked, creating widespread fear within the Hindu community.
These repeated incidents have contributed to an atmosphere of fear among Hindu minorities across Bangladesh, with families and communities calling for increased security and justice.
India on 9 January called on Bangladesh to firmly deal with communal incidents in the country, as New Delhi continued to express its concerns over the persecutioin of Hindus in hostile circumstances in recent weeks.
"We continue to witness a disturbing pattern of recurring attacks on minorities as well as their homes and businesses by extremists," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.
Such communal incidents need to be dealt with swiftly and firmly, he said.
"We have observed a troubling tendency to attribute such incidents to personal rivalries, political differences, or extraneous reasons," Jaiswal said. "Such disregard only emboldens the perpetrators and deepens the sense of fear and insecurity among minorities," he added.
