Hindu devotees targeted in foiled hate-fuelled mass shooting plot at US temple during Navratri, shooter's manifesto described Hindus as ‘subhumans’
Aurora, Illinois, United States 
14 October, 2026
Case Summary
In Aurora, Illinois, the Sri Venkateswara Temple and Hindu devotees were targeted in a planned mass shooting. The accused, a 19-year-old white supremacist, had chosen October 11, 2026, as the day to carry out the attack, as it marked the beginning of Navratri. The attack was averted because the 19-year-old Alexandros Paporakis' gun jammed. Following his arrest, the police confirmed that the accused specifically targeted the oldest Hindu temple, intending to kill the Hindu devotees gathered there. They recovered an eight-page document, the Aurora Hindu temple shooter’s manifesto titled: Why I Fought: A.K.A., in which he expressed hatred towards Indians, specifically Hindus and promoted white supremacist and neo-Nazi ideology. The incident came to light on 15 October 2026, after police arrested the accused. The police revealed that on Sunday, 11 October, 2026, the accused travelled from his mother’s home in Palatine to the largest Hindu temple in Aurora, carrying a modified AR-style rifle, multiple magazines, nearly 300 rounds of ammunition, a tactical vest with body armour and a white supremacist patch, along with Nazi imagery including the Hakenkreuz symbol. Devotees had filled the temple as October 11 marked the beginning of Navratri, and the celebrations were underway. He attempted to open fire at the Hindu devotees, but the firearm jammed, preventing him from carrying out the shooting. Paporakis fled the spot, searched online for how to unjam the rifle, and contacted a co-worker about his murderous plan. However, the co-worker alerted police, leading to his arrest. During the investigation, police learnt that Paporakis had reportedly told his Taco Bell co-workers that October 11 would be “a special day”. The police recovered an 8-page document titled Why I fought: A.K.A. (Aurora Shooter’s Manifesto) from his house. In this manifesto, the perpetrator described his hate using derogatory and racially charged slurs for non-white communities, especially for Indians and Hindu communities. The writings expressed hatred towards other non-white communities like Jewish and African American people. The accused referred to himself as the ‘Aurora Shooter’ and pledged he would not die before killing as many minorities (Hindus) as possible. His writings explicitly referred to carrying out a mass shooting targeting Indian people at the Hindu temple. The accused faced firearms charges and a charge relating to making a terrorist threat. A Cook County judge ordered him to be held without bond. The Hindu temple chairman credited its existing security arrangements and the police response with helping prevent the planned attack. The incident occurred during Navratri, the Hindu festival dedicated to the worship of the various forms of Devi, when devotees had gathered at the temple for religious observances. Notably, Hinduphobia tracker had recorded a similar case in which, approximately two before the present attack, on 02 October 2026 the Shree Swaminarayan Vadtal Dham Hindu Mandir in Richmond Heights, Ohio, was vandalised when devotees were engaged in worship. This incident brought renewed attention to the security of Hindu religious institutions in the United States.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under multiple categories, the first primary category being: Attack not resulting in death. Within this, the subcategory selected is: Attack against Hindu devotees. Hindu devotees are a few of the easiest targets of religiously motivated hate crimes because during the festival/procession/puja etc, for non-Hindus it is easy to profile their victims on the basis of religion. Hindu devotees come under attack on several occasions by individual non-Hindus or mobs of non-Hindus owing to their animosity against Hinduism, its symbols and tradition/practices. There are several instances of Hindu devotees being attacked while they worship in temples or temporary religious structures, during religious processions, doing bhajan/kirtan/puja in their own homes, in the residential society etc. These attacks are perpetrated by non-Hindus primarily because of their animosity towards Hindus and their faith. In some cases, the trigger for the violence may be non-religious, however, there are two elements that make these hate crimes. First, the Hindus who come under attack are attacked violently while indulging in religious activity. Whether they are in a place of worship or not is immaterial to the crime. When individuals are attacked while indulging in religious practices, the attack in itself is a hindrance to their freedom to practice religion and therefore constitutes a hate crime. Secondly, religious supremacist doctrines and ideologies deem religious practices of Hindus to be offensive ab initio since they are considered “sinful” by these ideologies, worthy to be annihilated by force or coercion. Driven by these religious supremacist ideologies and doctrines, the attacks against Hindu devotees stem from intrinsic animosity towards Hinduism. In some cases, the trigger for the violence may be non-religious, however, it develops into a religiously motivated crime during the course of the violence. Since these attacks stem from animosity towards Hindus and Hinduism, they are considered religiously motivated hate crimes under this category. The other 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. The next primary category selected is: Attack on Hindu religious representations. Within this, the first subcategory selected is: Attack on Temples. In Hinduism, a temple is the abode of the Deity. The Deity in the Temple is consecrated, thereby, making it a real, breathing entity. Hindus believe that not just the Deity but the temple premises itself are sacred to Hindus since Hindus hold the faith that the entire Temple space is an amalgamation of the divine energy of the deity. Given the central significance of Temples in Hindu Dharma, any attack against a Hindu Temple or its peripheral premises is an attack on the faith itself and is born out of animosity towards the faith, of which, the Temple is a central tenet. Any manner of attack against a Temple and/or its premises would therefore be considered a religiously motivated hate crime. The other subcategory is: Breaking rules of places of worship. Sanatan Dharma is not a religion of one book, which is to say that while it has religious scriptures that form the central tenets of the faith, there are several traditions followed through thousands of years, mostly passed from generation to generation orally. One of these oral traditions or written traditions is the rules of specific temples. Certain temples have rules which are traditional rules, dependent on the worship of the presiding deities. These rules and traditions have been followed for thousands of years whether they find scriptural mention or not. Such traditions are based on the nature and rules of worship of the presiding deity of that temple. Any non-compliance of these traditions owing to animosity towards the faith or for the sake of activism stems not only from the lack of faith in the presiding deity but also disregard for the faith of the devotees of that deity/temple and implicit bias against the faith, the tradition and the deity itself. Since these specific traditions are central to the faith of the devotees of that specific temple and presiding deity, any non-compliance with these traditional rules would be considered a religiously motivated hate crime. The other primary category relevant is: Hate speech against Hindus, and within this, 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. Distinct elements in this particular case demonstrate that the crime was committed while harbouring a bias against the Hindus. The accused’s racial and religious hatred culminated in a planned mass shooting specifically targeting Hindu devotees at the Sri Venkateswara Temple in Aurora, Illinois. His manifesto expressed hatred towards Indians, specifically Hindus and identified them as targets for mass murder. It is important to understand that while India is home to people of all faiths, the accused’s reference to Indians in this case was specifically directed at Hindus. India is a Hindu-majority country, and Hindus constitute its largest religious community. In this case, the accused’s explicit hatred towards Indians was accompanied by his specific intention to kill Indian people at a Hindu place of worship. This establishes that Hindu devotees were not merely incidental to a general threat against Indians; they were the intended victims of a planned attack at their religious institution. By selecting the temple and preparing to carry out mass violence against the Indian congregation, the accused directed his racial hatred towards a gathering of Hindus, making the threat both racial and religious in its implications. A Hindu temple is a sacred institution where devotees worship, observe religious festivals and sustain their connection with Hindu Dharma. By specifically choosing the temple as the site of the planned attack, the accused threatened the lives and safety of Hindus within their place of worship. Such targeting also endangered the congregation’s ability to gather for religious observances without fear of violence. The significance lay in the convergence of hostility towards Indians and the deliberate selection of a Hindu religious space as the intended site of mass violence. Further, the timing of the planned attack added a significant religious dimension. It was intended for 11 October 2026, during Navratri, when Hindus worship the various forms of Devi. Devotees had gathered at the temple for religious observances, making the planned attack a threat to Hindus practising their faith within their sacred space. The choice of a Hindu temple during a major religious festival placed an assembled congregation in danger and threatened their ability to observe their faith safely. More importantly, the accused’s manifesto provided the clearest evidence of the prejudice against Indians, and by extension Hindus in particular. It expressed obvious hatred towards Indians, particularly Hindus, and explicitly referred to carrying out a mass shooting targeting Indian people at a Hindu temple. His stated desire to kill as many minorities as possible, particularly Hindus, demonstrates that this was not merely indiscriminate violence arising from a general extremist worldview. He specifically identified Hindus as people he wanted to kill and connected that intention to an attack on their place of worship. His white supremacist and neo-Nazi ideology, reflected in the manifesto and the symbols he carried, further illustrates the intolerance underpinning his hostility towards minority communities. The fact that the rifle jammed and the planned mass shooting was prevented does not diminish the nature of the intended crime. The accused’s choice of Hindu victims, the temple setting and his own explicit anti-Hindu statements establish a clear connection between religious prejudice and the planned violence. This was a deliberate attempt to harm Hindu devotees because of the community they belonged to, while threatening their right to worship and observe their faith safely. The combination of explicit anti-Hindu hatred, the targeted selection of a Hindu religious institution and the intention to kill its devotees makes this a clear case of anti-Hindu hate crime. Moreover, the incident occurred about two weeks after vandals attacked the Shree Swaminarayan Vadtal Dham Hindu Mandir in Richmond Heights, Ohio. The recurrence of attacks and planned violence against Hindu religious institutions raised serious concerns about the freedom of Hindus, a minority religious community in the United States, to practise their faith without fear. Such hostility sent a threatening message to Hindu devotees that continuing to practise their religion and gathering at their places of worship could expose them to similar acts of intimidation and violence. The planned mass shooting in Aurora represented a particularly grave threat, as it sought to turn hostility towards a Hindu place of worship into mass violence against its congregation. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident date as when the victim’s ordeal began, not when the media reported it. The earliest available date in the report was when the accused attempted to shoot on 11 October 2026, while the arrest was reported on 15 October 2026. Therefore, we selected 11 October 2026 as the indicative incident date for documentation purposes only.
Case Status
Arrested
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Others
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
