Bangladesh’s religious minorities are under attack

ONE DAY in October Dilip Das had a bath, donned a new shirt presented to him by his son and prepared a garland of flowers before setting off for his local temple in Cumilla, a city of 300,000 in eastern Bangladesh. It was Durga Puja, the most important festival in the Bengali Hindu calendar. By the end of the day the 62-year-old Mr Das was dead, bludgeoned by a Muslim mob. “What was his sin?” asks Rupa Das, his wife. “He was just a simple man, a washerman,” who had lived happily alongside his Muslim neighbours.