Bangladesh has been thrown into turmoil following the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday, with religious minorities facing targeted attacks as riots spread across the country. 

“You people are descendants of the Awami League! This country is in a bad shape because of you. You should leave the country,” a mob shouted at Hindu residents of a mixed neighborhood, the BBC reported. 

Crowds gathered over the weekend to express their intense frustration with the economic hardship plaguing much of the nation. Many believe that elites aligned with the ruling Awami League party have prospered during this time, fueling deep resentment towards the government. 

These sentiments reached a boiling point on Monday when Hasina, along with her party offices and a museum honoring her father, were targeted. Hasina subsequently resigned and fled to neighboring India. 

The country’s population is overwhelmingly Muslim, with the remaining population primarily Hindu, and smaller pockets, around 5% each, of Buddhists and Christians. The ruling Awami League party, which Hasina led, is secular, but rivals often view Hindus as their supporters – making them prime targets for their anger in the aftermath of the prime minister’s departure. 

A crackdown on the protests prior to Hasina’s departure resulted in over 200 deaths, further inflaming the protests and strengthening the protesters’ resolve, according to analysts. 

The U.S. State Department urged Americans to avoid traveling to Bangladesh due to ongoing civil unrest, going so far as to order all non-emergency U.S. government employees and their families to leave on Monday as the protests escalated. 

“Travelers should not travel to Bangladesh due to ongoing civil unrest in Dhaka,” the State Department wrote in the advisory. “Violent clashes have occurred in the  its neighboring areas, and throughout Bangladesh, and the Bangladeshi Army is deployed nationwide.”

Indian Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar expressed that India was “particularly” concerned about the “minorities, their businesses and temples also… under attack at multiple locations. The full extent of this is still not clear.” 

“We are also monitoring the situation with regard to the status of minorities,” Jaishankar said. “There are reports of initiatives by various groups and organizations to ensure their protection and well-being. We welcome that, but will naturally remain deeply concerned till law and order is visibly restored.”

The organization Open Doors, which tracks discrimination against Christians worldwide, ranked Bangladesh as having “very high” persecution levels, claiming that “converts to Christianity face the most severe restrictions, discrimination and attacks.”

“Religious beliefs are tied to the identity of the community, so turning from the locally dominant faith to following Jesus can result in accusations of betrayal,” the group wrote on its website. “Bangladeshi converts often gather in small house churches due to the risk of attack.”

reports indicated that Hindu businesses and homes were targeted in the violence – at least 97 places on Monday and Tuesday “attacked, vandalized and looted,” according to Rana Dasgupta, the general secretary of the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council. 

At least 10 Hindu temples were attacked on Monday, the council said, which raised concerns among European Union diplomats who expressed deep concern over “reports of multiple attacks against places of worship and members of religious, ethnic and other minorities in Bangladesh.” 

“We urgently appeal to all parties to exercise restraint, reject communal violence and uphold the human rights of all Bangladeshis,” EU Ambassador to Bangladesh Charles Whiteley wrote on social media platform X.

Hundreds of people were killed as Bangladeshi security forces cracked down on the demonstrations – violence that only fueled them, even after the quota system was dramatically scaled back.

It showed that her government “wildly underestimated just how much anger there was among the public, and the sources of the anger which went beyond the issue of job quotas,” said Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center.