Minor Hindu girl religiously profiled and abducted by Muslim man in Pratapgarh; victim's mother also subjected to casteist slurs

Case ID : 30a7437 | Location : Pratapgarh, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Sun, 8 March, 2026

Case ID : 30a7437

Pratapgarh, Uttar Pradesh, India

8 March, 2026

Minor Hindu girl religiously profiled and abducted by Muslim man in Pratapgarh; victim's mother also subjected to casteist slurs

Attack not resulting in death

Attacked for Hindu identity

Hate speech against Hindus

Anti-Hindu slurs, mocking faith

Case Summary

In Pratapgarh, Uttar Pradesh, a minor Hindu girl belonging to the Dalit community was religiously profiled and abducted by a Muslim man. The accused also subjected the victim's mother to casteist slurs when she confronted him about her daughter. According to media reports, the victim went missing last Monday (9 March 2026). Her mother checked her mobile phone and discovered that she had spoken to the Muslim accused before leaving home. Following this, the victim's mother reached Patti town and arrived near the accused's house. Meanwhile, Bajrang Dal District Coordinator Vinay Singh became aware of the incident. He arrived at the scene and handed over the accused youth to the police. After this, he took the girl's mother to the police station, where the mother filed a written complaint against the Muslim youth. In the complaint, the victim's mother stated that the Muslim accused, a resident of Purani Patti, had abducted her minor daughter from their home. She stated that the accused had repeatedly called her daughter and was seen around their house. The victim's mother also stated that when she asked him about her daughter, he abused her using casteist slurs and threatened to kill her. At the time of writing this report, regarding this matter, the Kotwali police questioned the accused youth about the missing girl. The town in charge, Prashant Katiyar, stated that the case was investigated based on the complaint, and the accused was rigorously interrogated.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case is being added to the tracker under the primary category- Attack not resulting in death. Within this, the subcategory selected is- Attacked for Hindu identity. 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. Another primary category selected is- Hate Speech against Hindus. The subcategory selected is- Anti-Hindu slurs, mocking faith. Anti-Hindu slurs and the deliberate mocking of the Hindu faith owing to religious animosity involve the usage of derogatory terms, stereotypes, or offensive references to religious practices, symbols, or figures. One of the common anti-Hindu slurs used against Hindus is “cow-worshipper” and “cow piss drinker”. The intention of using this term is to demean and mock Hindus as a group and their religious beliefs since Hindus consider the cow holy. Additionally, some symbols and the slurs attached to them have a historical context that exacerbates the insult, hate, stereotyping, dehumanisation and oppression against Hindus. Cow worship has been used for centuries to denigrate Hindus, insult their faith and oppress Hindus specifically as a religious group. There has been overwhelming documentation about how cow slaughter has been used to persecute Hindus with cow meat being thrown in temples and places of worship. There has also been overwhelming documentation where cow meat (beef) has been force-fed to Hindus to either forcefully convert them to Islam or denigrate their faith. Apart from cow worship, the Swastika – which holds deep religious significance for the Hindus – has also been misinterpreted and distorted to use as a slur against Hindus. Similarly, the worship of the Shivling has been used by supremacist ideologies and religions to denigrate Hindus owing to religious animosity. Such slurs and denigration stem out of inherent animosity and hate towards Hindus and their faith, therefore, it is categorised as hate speech targeted at Hindus specifically owing to their religious identity. This case is a clear instance of a religiously motivated hate crime, as the Muslim man religiously profiled the minor Hindu girl due to her faith identity and then abducted her. Following this, he launched casteist slurs at the victim's mother when she confronted him, making the religiously motivated nature of the crime even clearer. The perpetrator singled out the girl explicitly for being Hindu, turning her religious identity into a target for abduction, while extending his hostility to her mother through abusive language rooted in communal prejudice. This sequence of actions revealed not just personal malice but a broader animus against Hindus, where faith became the trigger for violence and intimidation. The religiously motivated nature of the crime became evident when the accused launched casteist slurs at the victim's mother. Some may argue that a caste-specific slur refers to the victim and her mother's caste identity within the Dalit section of the Hindu community, rather than the entire Hindu community. However, for Abrahamic religions, micro-identities like caste, region, or language are secondary; it is the overarching religious identity that drives the perpetrator's animosity against Hindu victims. The fact that the perpetrator hurled caste-specific slurs at the victim's mother upon her confronting him about her daughter showcases his deep-seated religious animosity towards the Hindu victim and the Hindu community in general. His use of such slurs functioned as an anti-Hindu attack in this context, sharpening the religiously motivated nature of the crime. The fact that the accused harboured animosity towards Hindus and then abducted the girl showcases that the victim was targeted for her faith identity. Targeting a minor Hindu girl for abduction due to her religious identity demonstrates the perpetrator's deep-seated hatred for the Hindu community. In many cases, when Hindu victims are abducted by Muslim perpetrators, they face sexual exploitation, forced conversion to Islam, or sale into prostitution, all driven by their Hindu identity and the perpetrator's hatred of it. The religious profiling in this abduction raises grave concerns about the horrors the victim endured, underscoring the religiously motivated core of the crime. Considering that the victim is a minor, she lacked any element of consent or genuine change of conscience. Minors, due to their young age, are especially vulnerable to manipulation and coercion. In this case, the perpetrator exploited the victim's age-related vulnerability to abduct and manipulate her, making it a clear instance of a religiously motivated hate crime. This predatory focus on a child's innocence amplified the crime's severity, as it weaponised her age against her own faith, leaving her defenceless against an adult driven by communal hatred. Using caste-specific slurs towards the Hindu victim's mother further showcased animosity towards her as well. The mother was doing nothing more than confronting the accused about her daughter's whereabouts, based on the last call with him. Instead of providing answers, the perpetrator launched abusive anti-Hindu slurs through casteist attacks, turning a desperate parental plea into an opportunity for hate-filled vitriol. When such anti-Hindu slurs are directed at a Hindu victim, they reveal the depth of hostility the perpetrator held towards her and her identity, transforming a simple confrontation into religiously motivated hate speech and solidifying the hate crime classification. Given that this case meets the parameters of a religiously motivated offence, it is being added to the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker.