Hindu youth shot by Muslim mob during anti-Hindu Haldwani riot

Case ID : 4137a25 | Location : Haldwani, Uttarakhand, India | Date of Incident : Wed, 7 February, 2024

Case ID : 4137a25

Haldwani, Uttarakhand, India

7 February, 2024

Hindu youth shot by Muslim mob during anti-Hindu Haldwani riot

Attack not resulting in death

Attacked for Hindu identity

Case Summary

In Haldwani, during the anti-Hindu riots, a Hindu youth named Ajay was brutally attacked by a Muslim mob while he was on his way to buy medicines for his mother. Ajay, only 22–23 years old, had recently married and is the father of a young child. He earned his livelihood as a scrap dealer, trying to provide for his family. The victim lived in the Muslim-dominated Gafoor basti. Santosh Kumar, the uncle of Ajay and the Head of the village, informed that Ajay was shot in the lower abdominal area and the bullet exited his body, leaving him in a critical condition. He added that the spine of the victim had been seriously injured. He added that the bullet has damaged Ajay’s private parts and the bladder, too. There was internal bleeding in his abdomen. “At that time, the police were not firing shots. Only the rioters were raining down bullets,” he said on being asked about the perpetrator behind the shooting incident. In Haldwani’s Banbhoolpura, violence erupted after the demolition of an illegally built madrasa and mosque on government land. Armed Muslim mobs carried out coordinated attacks with petrol bombs, swords, firearms, and stone stockpiles against the police, municipal staff, and government property. Hindu neighbourhoods, particularly Gandhinagar, became the last line of defence as local residents sheltered injured officers, offered food and water, and physically resisted the rioters while chanting “Jai Shri Ram.” Hindu men were gravely injured in the process, while Hindu women converted their homes into makeshift first-aid centres, tending to wounded policemen and shielding them from mobs attempting to storm the locality. The riots also revealed a targeted communal angle. Hindu journalists covering the events were singled out, beaten, and their equipment destroyed, while Muslim journalists were spared. Reporters such as Sanjay (Amrit Vichar) and Atul Aggarwal (Uttarakhand 24) testified that their Hindu identity alone marked them for assault, despite their previous reporting in favour of the encroaching community. This selective violence against Hindus—whether police, civilians, or journalists—underscored the anti-Hindu nature of the riots, compelling the administration to impose curfews, deploy reinforcements, and file mass FIRs against the rioters.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the prime category- Attack not resulting in death. The sub-category relevant in this case 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. In this case, a Hindu man was shot by a Muslim mob. His only “provocation” was being a Hindu caught in the middle of riots that were demonstrably anti-Hindu in nature. He was not a rioter, not confronting the mob, and was only stepping out to buy medicines for his ailing mother when he was shot in the abdomen by armed rioters. The brutality of the attack—inflicting injuries to his spine, private parts, and bladder—shows the intent to not just harm but to permanently cripple him. In the absence of any personal dispute or action on his part, the sole reason he was targeted was his Hindu identity amidst violence where Hindus were systematically singled out. The wider context of the Haldwani riots confirms this communal targeting. The violence erupted after the demolition of illegal Muslim structures, but the fury of the armed mobs was directed not only against police and officials but specifically against Hindu neighbourhoods and individuals. Hindu families like those in Gandhinagar became the frontline of defence, protecting policemen and resisting rioters while chanting “Jai Shri Ram.” Hindu journalists alone were attacked, while Muslim journalists were spared, highlighting selective religious persecution. These patterns—residential targeting, selective assaults, and chants of defiance—clearly establish the riots as anti-Hindu in character, making Ajay’s shooting a hate crime driven by his Hindu identity.