A Hindu businessman died on Saturday, three days after he was attacked while returning home from work in Bangladesh’s Shariatpur district, The Daily Star reported.

Khokon Chandra Das, 50, was assaulted near Keurbhanga Bazar in Damudya upazila of Shariatpur district on Wednesday night after closing his shop.

Kajol Debnath of the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council said this was the fifth death of a Hindu man since December and that seven attacks on the community had been recorded during the month, PTI reported.

Das ran a pharmacy and also worked as an agent for mobile financial services, The Daily Star reported.

At around 9.30 pm, armed assailants reportedly stopped his autorickshaw, attacked him with sharp weapons and then set him on fire using flammable substances.

Residents rescued him and took him to Shariatpur Sadar Hospital, from where he was referred to Dhaka because of the severity of his injuries. He was later treated at Dhaka Medical College Hospital and the National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery, where he eventually died during treatment.

Doctors said Das had multiple injuries, including a serious abdominal wound and burn injuries to his face, head and hands, PTI reported.

A relative told The Daily Star that about 30% of Das’ body was burned and that his condition worsened early on Saturday.

Before his death, Das identified two alleged attackers, Sohag Khan, 27, and Rabbi Mollah, 21. The police later named a third suspect, Palash Sardar, 25.

The police filed a case late on Thursday against the three men. The authorities said they were trying to arrest the three persons and were also investigating whether the attack was linked to cash that Das was carrying from his business.

Several attacks on minorities in Bangladesh have been reported amid widespread unrest following the death of student leader Sharif Osman Bin Hadi, who succumbed to gunshot injuries at a hospital in Singapore on December 18.

Hadi was a prominent leader in the 2024 student protest that led to the ouster of the earlier government headed by Awami League leader Sheikh Hasina.

On December 26, India condemned the lynching of another Hindu man in the neighbouring country, saying that the “unremitting hostility” against minorities in the country was concerning.

Two days later Dhaka rejected the remarks and described them as “inaccurate, exaggerated or motivated”.

SM Mahbubul Alam, the spokesperson for the Bangladeshi foreign ministry, added that the statements “misrepresent the country’s longstanding tradition of communal harmony”.