Hindu community faces obstruction over welcoming gate construction for Durga Puja mandap in Ashoknagar, West Bengal
North 24 Parganas district, West Bengal, India 
21 September, 2026
Case Summary
In Ashoknagar, North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, the local Hindu community faced obstruction from a Muslim group while constructing a welcoming gate for an upcoming Durga Puja mandap near Samudrapur School. The Muslim mob halted the construction work, asserting that the neighbourhood was a "Muslim area" and therefore they would not allow a Hindu festival gate to be erected on the public street. In a video of the incident that surfaced on social media, a Muslim man confronted the Hindus and explicitly demanded they stop the construction. He stated, "Keep silent; we won’t let you build the gate here. Do it elsewhere. This is a Muslim majority area. Last time also, this had happened." The Hindu community had planned the temporary welcoming gate to enhance the festive atmosphere of Durga Puja. Hindu residents clarified that the gate was not a permanent installation and would be dismantled immediately after the celebrations concluded. Despite this, the Muslim group maintained their opposition, preventing the Hindus from organising their religious festival normally. Following the obstruction and the ensuing communal tension, local police increased patrolling in the neighbourhood. Administrative officials intervened and initiated discussions with leaders from both communities to resolve the dispute and maintain peace ahead of the festival.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category- Attack not resulting in death. The subcategory selected is- Attacked for crossing 'Muslim area'. One of the reasons that Hindus get attacked unprovoked specifically by Islamists is for crossing ‘Muslim areas’. Essentially, Muslim mobs often attack Hindus crossing or present in certain areas which have a majority Muslim population. It has often been cited as one of the reasons to blame Hindus for attacks against themselves, signalling that Hindus displaying religious symbols, taking our religious processions or crossing any area which is dominated by Muslim residents is a provocation in and of itself. These areas are mostly ghettoized areas where mobs mobilize quickly to attack Hindus for a variety of reasons like playing music during a religious procession, crossing a mosque, wearing a tilak or any other religious symbol in a Muslim-dominated area, praying at a local temple in that area etc. There have been cases where the few local Hindus of that area have been attacked on their way to the Temple for prayers as well, simply because the area is considered a Muslim-dominated area. Several times, it is entirely possible that the immediate trigger for the violence against Hindus was non-religious in nature, however, the violence became religiously motivated in nature because the area was Muslim dominated and the residents on the whole harboured animosity towards Hindus, evidenced from the actions of the mob, the slogans, and the nature of the attack. Such crimes are motivated by the religious identity of the victims and are therefore classified as hate crimes under this category. The primary religious marker in this incident was the Durga Puja mandap welcoming gate. The perpetrators targeted this specific installation because it visibly represented Hindu cultural and religious celebration. The obstruction did not stem from civic concerns regarding traffic or temporary infrastructure, but from a direct intolerance towards a Hindu religious symbol occupying a shared public space. The secondary religious marker was the explicit declaration of the neighbourhood as a designated Muslim zone. By weaponising local demography, the perpetrators established an artificial religious boundary. This conduct perfectly aligned with the pattern of Hindus facing hostility in Muslim-dominated areas, where their presence, religious expression, or festival preparations are treated as an inherent provocation simply due to the demographic makeup of the street. The perpetrators effectively attempted to convert a public thoroughfare into an exclusive religious territory. By dictating where Hindus could or could not erect temporary festive structures based on the religious identity of the surrounding residents, the group stripped the Hindu community of their fundamental civic right to freely practice and celebrate their faith. This incident reflected a broader, documented phenomenon of ghettoisation, where local demographic dominance was frequently used to enforce de facto exclusion zones. In such environments, the normal display of Hindu religious symbols, the playing of devotional music, or the routing of festival processions routinely face organised obstruction or mob intimidation due to deep-seated religious animosity. The incident qualified as a religiously motivated hate crime because the obstruction was predicated entirely on religious prejudice. The perpetrators targeted the victims specifically for their Hindu identity, using their demographic superiority to intimidate the minority residents and suppress Hindu religious expression at the neighbourhood level. Disclaimer: The exact date on which the incident escalated, or when the Hindu organisers attempted to install the Durga Puja welcoming gate, is not known from the available sources. The Hinduphobia Tracker records incident dates based on when the incident occurred, not when it was reported or published. Therefore, we used 22 September 2026 as the indicative date. This is used for documentation purposes only
Case Status
Unknown
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
Unknown
Perpetrators Gender
unknown
Sources 
