Police in Bangladesh arrested three Muslim men on April 30 in connection with a late-night attack on an Oblate missionary and a robbery at a Catholic church in the country’s capital, officials said.
According to Tanvir Ahmed, deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, officers raided the area on the night of 30 April and detained the suspects. Ahmed said that there were earlier cases of robbery registered against these people and the police were continuing the investigation.
“The Christian community was celebrating Easter Sunday a month ago and the robbers thought the father had extra money, so they carried out the robbery,” Ahmed told EWTN News.
According to the police, they reached the church in a rickshaw; The driver kept watch outside, while two others scaled the perimeter wall, cut through the grille and entered the priest’s bedroom.
predawn attack
The arrests follow the attack on OMI, Oblate Missionary Father Subhash Pulok Gomes, 51, at around 2:30 am on April 28, who lives in the premises of De Mazenod Catholic Church in Dhaka’s diplomatic enclave Baridhara.
According to the police, the intruders took away cash, the priest’s passport and other documents. Gomes is currently undergoing treatment.
“They beat and tortured me and tied me up and then assaulted me and injured my nose and face,” Gomes said.
A day after the incident, the priest filed a general diary with the police describing the attack.
“When I was crying, they covered my face with a cloth and beat me,” he said in his statement. “Two unidentified men beat me and took away ₹250,000 (Taka; $2,037) kept in the cupboard in the room and other valuable papers including my passport.”
According to the statement, one of the attackers called the other “Mizan” – a name commonly used among Muslim men in Bangladesh – and tried to calm down the priest before they left with the cash and documents.
After the incident, the priests, in consultation with their superiors and other church officials, filed only general diaries rather than pursue a formal criminal case.
Gomes said, “For religious and spiritual reasons, I and the Church authorities will not file any case in relation to the incident. I request that the incident be recorded in the general diary for future reference.”
A priest told EWTN News that Gomes is now suffering from mental trauma. A second robbery took place at a Catholic residence the same night, with lay leaders and church officials expressing concern over the incidents.
a pattern of attacks
De Mazenod Church has been targeted before. On May 4, 2022, police arrested Mohammed Nahid Shaikh, a 26-year-old Muslim man, for throwing bricks at the church and damaging the image of the Virgin Mary.
In April of the same year, a youth attacked a Catholic church in Joypurhat in northern Bangladesh and destroyed statues of Jesus, Mary and St. Teresa of Calcutta.
Recently, attackers detonated a homemade bomb outside St. Mary’s Cathedral in Dhaka on November 7, 2025; A few hours later, another device exploded inside the premises of St. Joseph’s Higher Secondary School and College in Mohammadpur neighbourhood. Almost a month earlier, on October 8, 2025, a similar device was detonated at the gate of the Holy Rosary Catholic Church, established by Portuguese missionaries in 1677 and one of the oldest Catholic institutions in the country.
In 2001, a bomb killed 10 Catholics and injured dozens during a Sunday mass in Gopalganj, southern Bangladesh, but the incident is still being investigated.
Christians account for less than 0.5% of Bangladesh’s population, and the religious minority makes up about 8% of the more than 180 million people in the Muslim-majority South Asian nation.
Christian leaders demanded investigation
Christian leaders are pleading for justice. Following the latest robbery, representatives of the Bangladesh Christian Association met priests at De Mazenod Church and demanded a government investigation.
Association president Nirmal Rozario said the incident was very unfortunate and posed a serious threat to religious life in the country.
“We condemn this incident and demand from the government an impartial investigation into this incident and all incidents that have happened to Christian minority communities in the past,” Rosario told EWTN News.
