Hindu family targeted with death threats over their religious identity by members of Muslim community

Case ID : 30a82f7 | Location : Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Mon, 20 April, 2026

Case ID : 30a82f7

Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India

20 April, 2026

Hindu family targeted with death threats over their religious identity by members of Muslim community

Attack not resulting in death

Attacked for Hindu identity

Case Summary

A Hindu family from Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, faced death threats for their religious identity by members of the Muslim community. According to media reports, the Hindu family in question were originally Muslims who chose to convert to Hinduism through a gharwapsi ceremony. Five members of the family converted to Sanatan Dharma (Hinduism). They bathed in the Ganges at Haridwar and embraced Hinduism with rituals and chanting. Shahzad, the head of the family, has now become Shankar. Similarly, his wife, Razia, has changed her name to Savitri. A video of the family's return to Hinduism has also surfaced, in which Shankar is seen kissing the feet of his guru, Arun Kishan Maharaj, standing on the banks of the Ganges River. After converting to Hinduism, Shahzad, also known as Shankar, said that he had believed in Sanatan Dharma since childhood. Shankar explained that he never liked the fanaticism of Muslims and therefore never offered namaz. He stated that both he and his family are happy to have converted to Hinduism. He also revealed that after his conversion, he was being threatened by members of the Muslim community. He said, "I am now threatened by people who used to be my own. However, I don't care about them anymore." Religious leader Ram Vishal Das, who facilitated the conversion of Shahzad and his family, stated that the family had contacted him themselves. On April 21, 2026, a purification ceremony was held at Brahmakund on Chandi Ghat in Haridwar, where the entire family was converted to Hinduism.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

The primary category selected in this case is- Attack not resulting in death. 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. This case exemplifies a clear example of a hate crime, where a Hindu family from Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, endured targeted death threats and sustained intimidation from members of the Muslim community, purely because of their religious identity. The deliberate targeting of this family, formerly Muslim, by their own former co-religionists starkly underscores the perpetrators' deep-seated religious animosity and intolerance towards the victims' newly embraced Hindu identity, transforming a personal spiritual choice into a basis for hostility. The family underwent a voluntary gharwapsi (homecoming) ceremony on 21 April 2026 in Haridwar, involving purification rituals, bathing in the Ganges, and chanting, with absolutely no coercion, inducement, or external pressure involved. Shahzad, the family head now renamed Shankar, explicitly stated he had believed in Sanatan Dharma since childhood, rejected Muslim fanaticism, and never performed namaz. His wife, Razia, now Savitri, along with the other three family members, embraced Hinduism entirely of their own free will, as confirmed by religious leader Ram Vishal Das, who facilitated the process after their self-initiated contact. Yet, this autonomous decision immediately provoked vicious threats from close Muslim acquaintances, exposing the perpetrators' profound bigotry against the victims' Hindu identity. Such relentless verbal assaults and death threats directed at Hindus simply for adopting Hinduism constitute unmistakable religious bias, definitively classifying this as an anti-Hindu hate crime driven by prejudice against the victims' religious identity. In Islam, apostasy, leaving the faith, is explicitly punishable by death, as codified in authoritative Hadiths such as Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, which clearly declares, "Whoever changes his religion, kill him," and endorses execution for those who abandon Islam. This entrenched doctrinal hostility provides the precise context for the immediate and severe threats unleashed against the family immediately after their public conversion from Islam to Hinduism. The rapid, coordinated retaliation by Muslim community members exemplifies targeted aggression against apostates, particularly those adopting Hinduism, a perceived rival faith, demonstrating zero tolerance for Hinduism and its adherents. This religiously motivated campaign of intimidation sought to terrorise, coerce, and punish the Hindu victims exclusively for their Hindu identity, solidifying the incident as a hate crime firmly rooted in Islamic apostasy laws and anti-Hindu sentiment. Given that this incident fully meets all established parameters of a hate crime, it has been formally added to the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records the date of incidents based on when the victim's ordeal began. In this case, the exact date when the family started receiving death threats is not specified. They converted back to Hinduism through a Gharwapsi ceremony on 21 April 2026. Henceforth, this date is selected as the indicative incident date solely for documentation purposes.