Women harassed, Hindu houses attacked, Hindu youth lynched by Muslim mob following a Muharram procession dispute in Bareilly

Case ID : 0b6744b | Location : Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Wed, 17 July, 2024

Case ID : 0b6744b

Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, India

17 July, 2024

Women harassed, Hindu houses attacked, Hindu youth lynched by Muslim mob following a Muharram procession dispute in Bareilly

Attack resulting in death

Attack against Hindu devotees

Case Summary

In Bareilly district, Uttar Pradesh, a Hindu youth named Tejram was lynched by a Muslim mob following an objection by Hindus to Muslims playing drums outside a temple during a Muharram procession on July 17th. This altercation led to Muslims attacking Hindu houses, harassing women, and pelting stones, even in the presence of police. On the night of July 18th, around 80-100 Muslims attacked Hindu homes with stones, sticks, and other weapons. Tejram was dragged from his house, brutally beaten, and sustained severe head injuries. Despite being rushed to the hospital, he succumbed to his injuries. The postmortem report revealed extensive damage to his skull and brain clots due to strikes from large stones and iron rods. A case was filed by the Hindu community against 50 identified and 15 unidentified individuals. The police began an investigation, arresting around 35 individuals, including Afsar Ali, Imran, Mukhtiar Ali, Abdul, and Salam. During the arrests, some accused opened fire on the police, leading to a retaliatory fire that injured one accused, Alamgir, and a police constable. Najakat Ali was also arrested following the incident.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

Hindu devotees are a few of the easiest targets of religiously motivated hate crimes because during the festival/procession/puja etc, for non-Hindus it is easy to profile their victims on the basis of religion. Hindu devotees come under attack on several occasions by individual non-Hindus or mobs of non-Hindus owing to their animosity against Hinduism, its symbols, and traditions/practices. There are several instances of Hindu devotees being attacked while they worship in temples or temporary religious structures, during religious processions, doing bhajan/kirtan/puja in their own homes, in the residential society, etc. These attacks are perpetrated by non-Hindus primarily because of their animosity towards Hindus and their faith. In some cases, the trigger for the violence may be non-religious, however, there are two elements that make these hate crimes. First, the Hindus who come under attack are attacked violently while indulging in religious activity. Whether they are in a place of worship or not is immaterial to the crime. When individuals are attacked while indulging in religious practices, the attack in itself is a hindrance to their freedom to practice religion and therefore constitutes a hate crime. Secondly, religious supremacist doctrines and ideologies deem the religious practices of Hindus to be offensive ab initio since they are considered “sinful” by these ideologies, worthy to be annihilated by force or coercion. Driven by these religious supremacist ideologies and doctrines, the attacks against Hindu devotees stem from intrinsic animosity towards Hinduism. In some cases, the trigger for the violence may be non-religious, however, it develops into a religiously motivated crime during the course of the violence. Since these attacks stem from animosity towards Hindus and Hinduism, they are considered religiously motivated hate crimes. Under this category, cases where the attack led to the death of the Hindu victim/s would be documented. Here it is important to note that the Hindus had not demanded that the Muslim devotees stop their expression of grief as a part of their religious procession. They had merely requested the Muslims to refrain from playing drums outside a temple. The Muslims took offence to such a small request not to play drums outside a temple and reacted by brutally attacking the Hindu devotees. A Hindu youth was lynched to death. Stones were pelted at Hindu homes and Hindu women were harassed. The aggressive response to simply being prevented from playing the drums outside a temple demonstrates the prejudice and bigotry that the Muslim perpetrators harboured toward Hindus. Such acts are motivated by an innate hatred of Hindus and their beliefs; as a result, this case has been added to the tracker and classified as a hate crime.