The Ministry of External Affairs on Saturday said that the “brutal killing” of Bhabesh Chandra Roy, a Hindu leader, in Bangladesh followed a pattern of “systematic persecution” of religious minorities in the country.

“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,” ministry Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said on social media.

Jaiswal called on Dhaka to “live up to its responsibility of protecting all minorities, including Hindus, without inventing excuses or making distinctions”.

Roy, a 58-year-old from Dinajpur’s Biral, was allegedly abducted from his home and beaten to death on Thursday, The Daily Star quoted the police as saying. He was the vice-president of Biral’s Bangladesh Puja Udjapan Parishad, according to the newspaper.

His wife said that Roy had received a call at about 4.30 pm on Thursday, likely to confirm whether he was home. About half an hour later, four men on two motorcycles allegedly abducted him.

Witnesses saw him being taken to Narabari village, where he was allegedly assaulted, The Daily Star reported. The attackers later sent home his unconscious body in a van.

Roy was taken to two hospitals and was pronounced dead on arrival at the second. The police sent his body for an autopsy.

An investigation was underway to identify and arrest the assailants, the police said.

The Congress on Saturday also said that religious minorities were “constantly being persecuted” in Bangladesh.

The murder of Roy was “proof that @narendramodi ji’s smiling meeting with the chief adviser of Bangladesh was a failure,” party chief Mallikarjun Kharge said on social media.

“The atrocities against religious minorities in Bangladesh, human rights violations and the attempt to eliminate the memories of the 1971 Liberation War are efforts to weaken the relations between India and Bangladesh,” Kharge said. “From 1971 till today, India has always sought peace and prosperity for all the people of Bangladesh, as is in the best interest of the subcontinent.”

On Friday, New Delhi asked Dhaka to focus on protecting the rights of its own minorities instead of “indulging in virtue signalling”.

This came a day after Shafiqul Alam, press secretary to Bangladesh’s Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus, said that Dhaka rejected any attempts to “implicate” the country in the violence in West Bengal.

Diplomatic ties between New Delhi and Dhaka have been strained since Sheikh Hasina resigned as the prime minister and fled to India on August 5.

Hasina fled following several weeks of widespread student-led protests against her Awami League government. She had been in power for 16 years and is considered a close ally of New Delhi.

Yunus, a Nobel laureate economist, took over as the head of Bangladesh’s interim government three days after Hasina fled. His government has said that it had sent “formal letters” requesting New Delhi to extradite Hasina but received “no official response” in the matter.

Following the collapse of the Hasina government, several parts of Bangladesh reported incidents of violence against religious minorities.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had urged Yunus in August to ensure the safety of Hindus and other minorities. Yunus, on his part, had claimed at the time that reports of attacks on religious minorities in Bangladesh had been exaggerated.