NEW DELHI (AP) — A protest erupted in India’s capital Tuesday in response to the death of a Hindu man who was lynched and burned by an angry mob in neighboring Bangladesh, a new sign of strain in relations between the neighboring countries.
The protest in New Delhi, mainly led by Hindu nationalist organization Vishva Hindu Parishad, highlights the fragility in the relationship between India and Bangladesh, which often is held up as a rare example of stability in South Asia.
Click to Gallery
Activists of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a prominent right-wing Hindu nationalist organization, shout slogans during a protest near Bangladesh High Commission accusing Bangladeshi groups of wrongly targeting Indians, in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, Dec.23, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
Activists of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a prominent right-wing Hindu nationalist organization, shout slogans during a protest near Bangladesh High Commission accusing Bangladeshi groups of wrongly targeting Indians, in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, Dec.23, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
Activists of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a prominent right-wing Hindu nationalist organization, shout slogans during a protest near Bangladesh High Commission accusing Bangladeshi groups of wrongly targeting Indians, in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, Dec.23, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
Police officers try to stop activists of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a prominent right-wing Hindu nationalist organization, crossing over barricades during a protest near Bangladesh High Commission accusing Bangladeshi groups of wrongly targeting Indians, in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
Activists of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a prominent right-wing Hindu nationalist organization, shout slogans during a protest near Bangladesh High Commission accusing Bangladeshi groups of wrongly targeting Indians, in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, Dec.23, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
Bangladeshi student leader Sharif Osman Hadi died in a hospital in Singapore on Thursday after being shot on Dec. 12 in Dhaka. Police in Bangladesh said they identified suspects and the shooter likely had fled to India.
Hadi’s death triggered widespread violence in Dhaka. The offices of two national daily newspapers were torched and Indian diplomatic missions were targeted. A Hindu man also was burned alive, which sparked the protest Tuesday in India.
Hundreds of demonstrators gathered Tuesday near the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi, shouting slogans and accusing Bangladeshi groups of wrongly targeting minorities. They carried placards and banners with slogans including “India will not tolerate torture of Hindus in Bangladesh” and “Our silence should not be mistaken as weakness, we are lions.”
Authorities erected barricades and imposed tight security around the diplomatic enclave that included police and armored vehicles. Security personnel used batons to hold back some protesters who broke through barricades in an apparent attempt to enter the embassy.
One of the Indian protestors, Rajkumar Jindal, threatened “dire consequences” if authorities in Bangladesh failed to stop violence against Hindus.
“People who are committing atrocities should stop doing that. We are here to awaken the people who are asleep,” Jindal said.
Hadi took part in a 2024 political uprising that ended the 15-year rule of former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who has been in exile since fleeing Bangladesh on Aug. 5, 2024. He was a fierce critic of India and Hasina and planned to run as an independent candidate in a major constituency in Dhaka in the next national elections in February.
Hadi's death sparked a new diplomatic squabble with India and prompted New Delhi this week to summon Bangladesh’s envoy.
Bangladesh’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also summoned Pranay Verma, the Indian high commissioner to Bangladesh, to apprise him of the security situation at Bangladesh missions in New Delhi and state capitals Kolkata and Agartala, a leading Bengali-language newspaper reported Tuesday.
Tensions between India and Bangladesh increased again with the death on Thursday of Dipu Chandra Das, a 25-year-old Hindu man who was lynched and burned publicly following allegations of blasphemy in Mymensingh district’s Bhaluka subdistrict.
Das's killing contributed to a pattern of fear among the Hindu community in Bangladesh following the ouster of Hasina.
Religious minority groups including Hindus and Christians have accused Bangladesh's interim government headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus of failing to protect the safety of Hindus and others. The Yunus administration has rejected the allegations.
Tuesday's protest could complicate cooperation on trade, border management and regional connectivity at a time when the region is already grappling with economic uncertainty and political polarization, said Sreeram Sundar Chaulia, an international affairs expert at New Delhi’s Jindal School of International Affairs.
“Opposing India and alleging Indian conspiracies of interference in Bangladesh are being done in order to harden a blatantly Islamist and non-inclusive path for the country,” Chaulia said.
The rupture is a setback to India’s broader regional strategy, while for Bangladesh the loss of India’s development assistance and markets could further dampen the country's slowing economy and push it further into dependence on China, Chaulia said.
Bangladesh and India have enjoyed a warm relationship since 2009 when Hasina came to power and until her ouster. Hasina was considered a friend by India and both countries thrived on bilateral cooperation. But Hasina’s opponents accused her administration of being subservient to India, a major trade and investment partner.
Alam reported from Dhaka.
Activists of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a prominent right-wing Hindu nationalist organization, shout slogans during a protest near Bangladesh High Commission accusing Bangladeshi groups of wrongly targeting Indians, in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, Dec.23, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
Activists of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a prominent right-wing Hindu nationalist organization, shout slogans during a protest near Bangladesh High Commission accusing Bangladeshi groups of wrongly targeting Indians, in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, Dec.23, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
Activists of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a prominent right-wing Hindu nationalist organization, shout slogans during a protest near Bangladesh High Commission accusing Bangladeshi groups of wrongly targeting Indians, in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, Dec.23, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
Police officers try to stop activists of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a prominent right-wing Hindu nationalist organization, crossing over barricades during a protest near Bangladesh High Commission accusing Bangladeshi groups of wrongly targeting Indians, in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
Activists of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a prominent right-wing Hindu nationalist organization, shout slogans during a protest near Bangladesh High Commission accusing Bangladeshi groups of wrongly targeting Indians, in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, Dec.23, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
Attallah Tarazi recently received Christmas presents that included socks and a scarf to shield him against the Gaza winter, and he joined some fellow Palestinian Christians in a round of hymns.
“Christ is born,” the group sang in Arabic. “Hallelujah.”
The presents and hymns offered the 76-year-old a taste of the holiday in a devastated Gaza, where a fragile ceasefire has provided some relief, but the losses of the Israel-Hamas war and the ongoing struggles of displaced people are dampening many traditional festivities.
Tarazi and much of the rest of Gaza’s tiny Palestinian Christian community are trying to capture some of the season’s spirit despite the destruction and uncertainty that surround them. He clings to hope and the faith that he said has seen him through the war.
“I feel like our joy over Christ's birth must surpass all the bitterness that we’ve been through," he said. He's been sheltering for more than two years at the Holy Family Church compound in Gaza, where a church group including choir members toured among displaced people this Christmas season, he said.
“In such a glorious moment, it’s our right to forget all that’s war, all that’s danger, all that's bombardment."
But for some, the toll is inescapable.
This will be the first Christmas for Shadi Abo Dowd since the death of his mother, who was among those killed in July when an Israeli attack hit the same Catholic church compound where Tarazi lives and which has been housing displaced people. Israel issued statements of regret and said it was an accident.
Abo Dowd said his son was wounded in the assault that also hurt the parish priest.
Ahead of Christmas, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, paid a visit to the Holy Family Parish. A patriarchate statement said the visit marked the beginning of Christmas celebrations in "a community that has lived and continues to live through dark and challenging times.”
Abo Dowd, an Orthodox Christian who observes Christmas on Jan. 7, said he does not plan to celebrate beyond religious rituals and prayers. “There’s no feast,” he said.
“Things are difficult. The wound is still there," he said. “The suffering and pain are still there.”
He added: "We’re still living in a state of no peace and no war."
Israeli strikes have decreased since the ceasefire agreement took effect in October, but deadly attackshave not entirely ended. Israel and Hamas have traded accusations of breaking the truce and the more challenging second phase has yet to be implemented.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages.
Israel’s ensuing offensive has killed nearly 71,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants but says around half the deaths were women and children.
The ministry, which operates under the Hamas-run government, is staffed by medical professionals and maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by the international community.
Israel’s offensive in Gaza has also caused widespread destruction and displaced the vast majority of the territory’s some 2 million residents. Highlighting some of the many struggles and needs of the enclave and its people was torrential rain that recently flooded displacement camps and collapsed already badly damaged buildings.
“I always tell my children, ‘God only gives the toughest battles to his strongest soldiers,’" Abo Dowd said. “We’re holding onto our Christian faith and onto our country, and we love our country."
He and others know of many Christians among those who fled Gaza during the war and more who hope to leave if given the opportunity. He worries about the effect on the Christian presence and on Gaza’s social fabric. “It's a tragedy,” he said.
His children would like to study abroad. “They're young. What will they stay to do? There's no future."
The departure of many relatives and friends means Christmas doesn’t feel the same for 23-year-old Wafa Emad ElSayegh.
He and family members gathered with others at Gaza’s Greek Orthodox church compound to put up decorations. But the absence of friends who escaped Gaza fueled his nostalgia.
“We used to be together in everything,” said ElSayegh, who’s now staying with his family at the home of an aunt who left Gaza during the war.
His favorite part of Christmas was the togetherness — the family gatherings, the celebratory events that he said drew Christians and some Muslims, and the excitement of children receiving gifts.
“There would be celebrations, songs and an indescribable joy that we, unfortunately, haven’t felt in a long time,” he said. And with many relatives away, he said the usual Christmas atmosphere cannot be recreated.
Elynour Amash, 35, is trying to bring some of that cheer to her children “through decorating and lighting the tree so they can feel that joy is possible despite all pain."
“My children feel a little bit of joy, like breathing after a long period of suffocation,” she said in written responses to The Associated Press. “They’re happy they’re celebrating without fear of a nearby explosion and because some chocolates and sweets have returned to their lives, in addition to foods that they had long been deprived of.”
She's thankful her home is still standing, but the scenes of displaced people in tents that cannot shield them from the cold and rain often drive her to tears.
“The sounds of explosions and gunfire can still be heard, and the fear hasn’t left the hearts. There’s continuous worry that the ceasefire won't last.” She sees the toll in her youngest, who trembles when he hears loud noises.
“It’s as if the war lives inside of him," she said. "As a mother, that pain is indescribable."
She also worries that someday Christians could disappear from Gaza. But, for now, “our presence, no matter how small, is a testimony of love, steadfastness and faith in this land,” she said.
Tarazi is determined to stay.
Early in the war, he lost a sister, who was among those killed when an Israeli airstrike hit the Orthodox church compound housing displaced people. The Israeli military said it had targeted a nearby Hamas command center. Tarazi said a brother also died after he could not get needed medical care due to the war.
He prays for peace and freedom for the Palestinian people. “Our faith and our joy over Christ's birth are stronger than all circumstances,” he said.
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, second left, leads a mass ahead og Christmass celebrations at the Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza City, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Palestinians parishioners attend a mass led by Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, ahead of Christmas celebrations in Gaza City, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Children and nuns gather outside the Holy Family Catholic Church before attending a mass ahead of Christmas celebrations in Gaza City, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, poses for the photos with Palestinian parishioners after leading a mass ahead of Christmas celebrations at the Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza City, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
