Hindu student assaulted by Muslim students, says he was attacked for being Hindu

Case ID : 242dfd7 | Location : Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Sun, 29 January, 2023

Case ID : 242dfd7

Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India

29 January, 2023

Hindu student assaulted by Muslim students, says he was attacked for being Hindu

Attack not resulting in death

Attacked for Hindu identity

Case Summary

Hindu student Sahil Baghel of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) was thrashed by a Muslim student Ahtisham Zakir Chisti in the varsity hostel. The victim said in his complaint that Zakir was pressuring the victim to drop the earlier FIR he had filed against one Rehbar. He said that Zakir had visited his hostel room along with his friend and punched him hard, causing immense bleeding. Zakir then threatened to shoot Sahil if he refused to do so while shoving a pistol in his mouth. Sahil said that his only fault was that he was a Hindu studying at AMU. The Hindu student also said that the accused would regularly target Hindu students.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

In several cases, Hindus are attacked merely for their Hindu identity without any perceived provocation. A classic example of this category of religiously motivated hate crime is a murder in 2016. 7 ISIS terrorists were convicted for shooting a school principal in Kanpur because they got ‘triggered’ seeing the Kalava on his wrist and tilak that he had put. In this, the Hindu victim had offered no provocation except for his Hindu religious identity. The motivation for the murder was purely religious, driven by religious supremacy. Such cases where Hindus are targeted merely for their religious identity would be documented as a hate crime under this category. In the given case, the victim testified that Hindu students in AMU generally meet with religiously motivated hate from Muslim students. He testified that the accused often targeted Hindu students and he was targeted and assaulted by them because of his religious identity. Based on the statement of the victim himself, this case is classified as a hate crime where the victim was targeted specifically because of his religious identity.