Hindu community targeted; Bangladeshi Muslim cleric threatens India with "Ghazwa-e-Hind", vows to slaughter cows to insult Hindus
Bangladesh 
10 May, 2026
Case Summary
An anti-Hindu, violent remark was made against the Hindu community and India by a Bangladesh-based Islamic cleric named Maulana Hafiz. The accused targeted the Hindu community by threatening Ghazwa-e-Hind (Islamic holy war aiming to conquer India) against India, and also threatened to slaughter cows in front of the Indian High Commission in Dhaka. Notably, Ghazwa-e-Hind means "the military conquest of India" and refers to a supposed prophecy attributed to Prophet Muhammad, recorded in multiple hadiths, where it is stated that Muslims would win a military battle against non-believer Hindus and establish the rule of Islam in India. This military conquest calls for the forced conversion of Hindus, the destruction of their temples and religion as a whole. The backdrop of this incident is the West Bengal Assembly Elections, which saw the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) achieve a historic landslide victory, sweeping over 200 seats in the 294-member assembly and ending the Trinamool Congress (TMC)'s 15-year rule under Mamata Banerjee. Held in multiple phases during late April 2026, with counting on 4 May 2026, the BJP capitalised on anti-incumbency, consolidated Hindu votes, fragmented Muslim support for TMC, strong urban performance, and welfare schemes. After the victory, BJP workers and ordinary Hindu citizens celebrated by raising BJP flags with slogans of "Jai Shri Ram" and by applying saffron gulal (coloured powder) on each other. Following the BJP's victory, the accused, Maulana Hafiz, created a stir in social media and religious circles with his highly provocative and threatening statements against Hindus and India. He said, "The time for Ghazwa-e-Hind has come. Within a week, we will surround the Indian High Commission, slaughter cows in front of it, prepare for war against India and increase our strength on the border." After this statement went viral, there was a strong reaction among Hindu social media users. Many condemned it as a direct incitement to war and the spreading religious hatred. It also spread a new fear of religious persecution among the minority Hindu community in Bangladesh. Maulana Hafiz said in his video message that after the Bharatiya Janata Party's victory in West Bengal, persecution of Muslims started. In response, he called for a symbolic cow slaughter programme in front of the Indian embassy. He also said that this programme would send a message to India that the Muslims of Bangladesh would not remain silent. According to sources at the Indian High Commission, they monitored the matter seriously and requested the Bangladesh government to take necessary action in this regard. A section of Bangladesh's political and civil society strongly condemned this statement. They said that calling for war in the name of religion and threatening to slaughter cows in public in front of the embassy of a neighbouring country was in no way acceptable.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
The primary category selected in this case is- Hate Speech against Hindus. The subcategory selected is- Violent Threats. Violent threats, explicit, implicit or implied, is the most dangerous form of hate speech since it goes beyond discriminatory and prejudicial language to express the intent of causing harm to an individual or a group of people based on their religious identity and faith. There could be several different kinds of threats that are issued to Hindus based on religious animosity. An explicit threat would mean the direct threat of violence towards an individual Hindu, a group of Hindus or Hindus at large. Physical violence, death threats, threats of destruction of property belonging to Hindus and threats of genocide would mean explicit threats against Hindus for their religious identity. Implicit threats may not be a direct threat but implied through the use of symbols of actions – for example – in the Nupur Sharma case, other than explicit threats, there were also implicit threats when Islamists took to the streets to burn and beat her effigies. It implies that they want to do the same to Nupur Sharma – thereby is considered an implicit threat. Violent threats can be delivered in person, through letters, phone calls, graffiti, or increasingly through social media and other online platforms. It would be important to understand that a threat – explicit or implicit, online or offline – to an individual who happens to be a Hindu does not qualify as a religiously motivated threat. Such a threat, while vile and dangerous, could be owing to non-religious reasons and/or personal animosity. To qualify as a religiously motivated threat, it would need to exhibit an indication that the individual is being targeted for religious reasons and/or owing to his/her religious identity as a Hindu. The other 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 example of religiously motivated hate speech, as the Bangladeshi Islamic cleric threatened to carry out Ghazwa-e-Hind and intimidated Hindus with violence by stating that he and all Muslims of Bangladesh would wage war against India. He also threatened to slaughter cows in front of the Indian High Commission in Dhaka. This overall makes it a clear case of a religiously motivated hate crime. Firstly, addressing the issue of Ghazwa-e-Hind: the term is often used by radical Muslims to describe a supposed religious battle against the Indian subcontinent and, by extension, against Hindus, as Muslim extremists view India as a Hindu collectivity. The very basis of the partition of India and the creation of Pakistan (including modern-day Bangladesh/ East Pakistan) was that Muslims believed Islam was a nation unto itself, which could not survive alongside a Hindu collectivity like India. Its use here is to threaten Hindus, intimidate them, and make them fearful of their religious identity. The Islamic doctrine associated with Ghazwa-e-Hind asserts that all Hindu temples would be destroyed and all Hindus forcibly converted to Islam or killed if they refused, with the explicit aim of eradicating Hindu religious infrastructure and establishing Islamic rule in India. When the perpetrator threatens to wage Ghazwa-e-Hind against India, it clearly demonstrates that his target is the Hindu community itself. This reveals Islamic supremacist attitudes designed to subjugate Hindus solely on the basis of their religious identity, making this a clear case of violent anti-Hindu hate speech rooted in deep-seated hostility towards Hinduism. The Muslim perpetrator's threat to slaughter cows in front of the Indian High Commission in Dhaka also stems from the same deep-rooted religious animosity towards Hindus and India. In Hinduism, the cow is considered profoundly sacred and is revered as a symbol of life, non-violence (ahimsa), compassion, and maternal care; it is often equated with Kamadhenu, the divine wish-fulfilling cow, and addressed as "Gau Mata" (Mother Cow), with millions of Hindus believing that protecting the cow is a religious duty and that harming one is a grave sin. The fact that the perpetrator explicitly views India as a Hindu collectivity means his deliberate threat to slaughter several cows in front of the Indian High Commission is intentionally designed to mock, desecrate, and provoke the faith of Hindus and to insult the Indian state, which he perceives as dominantly Hindu in nature and as advancing Hindu interests through the Bharatiya Janata Party. Hence, the act of threatening to slaughter something considered holiest by others, done deliberately just to incite offence, cause deep religious pain, and insult Hindu sentiments, showcases the perpetrator's deep-seated religious animosity, hatred, and contempt for the Hindu faith. This is a clear case of religiously motivated hate speech and hate crime, expressly aimed at mocking and attacking the Hindu faith with the deliberate intent to terrorise Hindus and instil fear regarding their religious identity. The Maulana also threatened to slaughter cows as a response to the supposed oppression of Muslims under the Bharatiya Janata Party in West Bengal, a claim that is entirely false. Muslims in West Bengal and across India live freely, practice their religion without persecution, and enjoy all constitutional rights; there is no systemic oppression of Muslims in India. However, Muslim extremists routinely exploit isolated incidents to mobilise Muslims and incite violence or religious attacks against Hindus and their faith sentiments. Even in this case, the act of falsely claiming that Muslims are being persecuted in West Bengal and then using this fabricated narrative as justification to threaten cow slaughter in front of the Indian High Commission showcases how this false narrative of Muslim victimhood is routinely weaponised to carry out anti-Hindu attacks and actions. This demonstrates a calculated strategy of manufacturing outrage to justify religiously motivated violence, making it a clear case of religiously motivated hate speech. This threat was issued after the election victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party in West Bengal. The Bangladeshi Maulana's hate towards the Bharatiya Janata Party stems from his hate towards Hindu identity. His threat to wage Ghazwa-e-Hind and slaughter cows erupted as a reaction to the Bharatiya Janata Party's victory, a party widely seen by Muslim radicals and the broader Muslim community as a Hindu or Hindutva force advancing Hindu interests and rights. The Trinamool Congress's fifteen-year rule in West Bengal entrenched pro-Muslim bias, prioritising radical Muslim interests while stifling Hindu expression, like restricting Durga Puja to accommodate Ramadan or Muharram, banning "Jai Shri Ram" slogans as provocative yet allowing "Allahu Akbar" freely, arresting Hindu sadhus for challenging anti-Hindu policies while appeasing Muslim clerics, and attacking Hindu processions and temples. This defined West Bengal under Trinamool Congress rule, where Hindus lived in fear like second-class citizens. The Bharatiya Janata Party's landslide triumph, perceived as pro-Hindu, provoked fury in the Muslim community, who interpreted it as a Hindu victory over their Islamic dominance. The Maulana's Ghazwa-e-Hind threat and cow slaughter threat fit this explosive context. He publicly threatened to wage religious war against India, surround the Indian High Commission in Dhaka within a week, slaughter cows in front of it, prepare for war against India, and increase Muslim strength on the border, targeting Hindus for their religious identity and the Bharatiya Janata Party's perceived backing of Hindu causes. This savagery flowed directly from the victims' Hindu identity and interests, proving beyond doubt a religiously motivated hate crime. Threats against Hindus for the Bharatiya Janata Party's pro-Hindu stance expose the perpetrator's visceral religious animosity towards the Hindu faith and community, embodying a textbook hate crime. The threat was a clear communal hate crime because it singled out Hindus, threatened violence against them, and declared war on the Indian state for supporting Hindu interests through the Bharatiya Janata Party. This was not an ordinary political disagreement. It was a deliberate assault on people because of their Hindu identity and their perceived support for a pro-Hindu party. Given that this case meets several parameters for hate speech, it is added to the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker. Disclaimer: At the Hinduphobia Tracker, we record incident dates based on when the crime actually occurred, not when the media reports it. In this particular case, the media reports did not specify the exact date when the incident took place. Therefore, for documentation purposes, we have recorded the media publication date of 11 May 2026 as the indicative incident date. This is recorded purely for documentation purposes only.
Case Status
Unknown
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
