Minor Hindu girl lured and abducted by Muslim youth in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh

Case ID : 30aa086 | Location : Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Thu, 20 August, 2026

Case ID : 30aa086

Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India

20 August, 2026

Minor Hindu girl lured and abducted by Muslim youth in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh

Undecided cases

Abduction of minor

Case Summary

In Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, a minor Hindu girl went missing after a Muslim youth, identified as Anas Khan, abducted her from the Kurawar area. On 21 August 2026, members of the Hindu Utsav Samiti, Bajrang Dal and other Hindu organisations, along with Bharatiya Janata Party Mandal President Ashish Thakur, surrounded Jahangirabad Police Station and staged a protest. A complaint had been lodged in connection with the incident, and Hindu organisations stated that, despite the complaint, the police had not taken any serious action. They demanded the girl's immediate and safe recovery, along with strict legal action against the accused. Chandrashekhar Tiwari, president of the Hindu Utsav Samiti, stated that the minor Hindu girl had been taken away from Kurawar by a Muslim youth. Former Member of the Legislative Assembly Dhruv Narayan Singh had also made a post regarding the matter. The protesters staged a sit-in outside the police station, raised slogans and demanded strict legal action against the accused. Additional police personnel were deployed outside the station, and police presence was increased as officials held discussions with the demonstrators and assured them that action would be taken. Police gathered information regarding the complaint, the search for the minor girl, and the action taken in the case. They also examined the complaint made by the protesters regarding the police response. No official information had emerged from the police confirming that the case had been established as one of “love jihad”. Hindu organisations stated that they would continue their protest and monitor the matter until the minor Hindu girl was safely recovered and action was taken against the accused.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

In this case, a minor Hindu girl was lured and abducted by a Muslim man. This could potentially be a crime motivated by religious profiling, as it has been observed that in many cases, Muslim perpetrators target Hindu girls due to inherent animosity towards Hindus, particularly minor Hindu girls. It could also be argued that for a Muslim perpetrator, a Muslim girl would likely be more accessible than a Hindu girl. The fact that the perpetrator specifically targeted the Hindu girl suggests religious profiling of the victim. The Hinduphobia Tracker has also documented several other cases in which Hindu women and minor girls were targeted by Muslim men through relationships, grooming, abduction, coercion, sexual exploitation or pressure for religious conversion. In all such cases, subsequent investigations established that the Hindu identity of the victim was directly relevant to the crime. Therefore, when a minor Hindu girl is taken away by a Muslim accused, it becomes necessary to examine whether her religious identity had any bearing on her selection or whether the incident arose from motives unrelated to religion. However, the available information in this case does not establish that the girl was taken away because she was Hindu. There was no established evidence of conversion pressure, religious coercion, anti-Hindu statements, denigration of Hinduism or any other explicit indication that her religious identity was a motivating factor. The police had also not confirmed any religious-conversion or “love jihad” angle at that stage. It is therefore possible that the incident was a crime of opportunity rather than one motivated by religious profiling. It is also important to note that the victim was a minor. Any purported consent on her part would therefore be legally invalid under the relevant provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. Accordingly, while the circumstances warrant continued scrutiny, they do not presently establish a religiously motivated hate crime. The victim's family had not made any statement indicating that she was targeted because of her Hindu identity, and the available investigation had provided no clear evidence of a religious motive. For these reasons, the case has been placed in the ‘Undecided’ database. If further investigation establishes that the victim was specifically targeted because of her Hindu identity, or that religious coercion, conversion pressure or hostility towards Hinduism formed part of the offence, the classification may be revised and the case included in the Hate Crime database. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records an incident date based on when the victim’s ordeal begins rather than when the case is published by the media. However, the exact date on which the minor Hindu girl was abducted was not specified. Therefore, 21 August 2026, the date on which the incident was published by the media, has been taken as the indicative incident date for documentation purposes only.