Hindu family harassed and assaulted by Muslim neighbours for leaving Islam and returning to Hinduism

Case ID : 30aa653 | Location : Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Mon, 24 August, 2026

Case ID : 30aa653

Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh, India

24 August, 2026

Hindu family harassed and assaulted by Muslim neighbours for leaving Islam and returning to Hinduism

Attack not resulting in death

Attacked for Hindu identity

Case Summary

In Amwa Buzurg village in the Kubersthan area of Kushinagar, a Hindu family faced sustained harassment, abuse and assault from their Muslim relatives and neighbours after they left Islam and returned to Hinduism According to reports, the family had approached the Kushinagar Superintendent of Police seeking protection and legal action against her relatives and neighbours. According to the complaint submitted to the Superintendent of Police, the Hindu family had faced harassment following their return to Hinduism. They stated that a group of Muslim individuals had entered their house late at night on 25 August 2026, abused and assaulted them, and issued threats. They also sought registration of an FIR, protection for the family, and her share in the ancestral property, stating that their relatives and neighbours had been attempting to deprive the family of their property rights. The police were investigating the matter to determine whether the incident stemmed from a family dispute or an attempt to take control of the ancestral property. As of the date of writing this report, the investigation was ongoing.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category of - Attack not resulting in death. Within it, the sub-category selected here 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 reflects religiously motivated targeting, where a Hindu family in Kushinagar faced harassment, abuse, assault and threats from their Muslim relatives and neighbours after leaving Islam and returning to Hinduism. The fact that the hostility emerged following the family’s decision to return to Hinduism gave the incident a distinct religious dimension beyond an ordinary family or property dispute. The family’s newly embraced Hindu identity became a source of hostility within their immediate social and familial environment, resulting in intimidation and violence directed towards them. The family had returned to Hinduism voluntarily and subsequently faced continued hostility from members of their former religious community. A group of Muslim individuals entered their home, abused and assaulted the family, and issued threats. The incident therefore involved more than a disagreement over ancestral property or a domestic dispute, as the harassment had begun after the family left Islam and returned to Hinduism. 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 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. The conduct directed towards the family therefore reflected hostility towards their decision to leave Islam and return to Hinduism. The abuse, assault and threats were not an isolated disagreement but as part of continued harassment following their return to Hinduism, with members of their former religious community involved in the targeting. The combination of religious identity, repeated intimidation and physical violence made the incident relevant for documentation as an anti-Hindu hate crime. Given the targeting of the Hindu family following their return to Hinduism, and the subsequent abuse, assault and threats directed against them, the incident was documented in the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker.