Hindus targeted through spiritual deception: Mazar built to aid conversion attempts
Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India 
3 June, 2025
Case Summary
In Pachhuva, Dehradun, poor and vulnerable tribal Hindus were brainwashed and deceived for religious conversion by a khadim (Islamic religious attendant or caretaker of a mazar) who got a mazar built on private land. The khadim relied on superstition and fabricated stories to lure poor Hindus. Upon investigation, it was revealed that Hindus built these mazars after making a vow. They stated that they had visited a mazar due to some problem in their lives, where a Khadim told them stories and advised them that if their wishes get fulfilled, they should offer a chaadar and construct a mazar of the Baba on their land. He assured them that this would save them from travelling far and promised spiritual benefits. The khadim personally came there and got the mazar built. Furthermore, some Hindus also said that the khadim comes every week and takes the money deposited here. As of the date of writing this report, the district administration has issued notices to individuals responsible for constructing these fake religious tombs on private land. Furthermore, the authorities are also preparing to register an FIR against these khadims.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category of: - Predatory proselytisation. Within it, the sub-category selected is: - Conversion/ attempts to convert by inducement. Predatory Proselytisation is not just limited to threat, harassment, force and violence, but it also has contours of stealth. In several cases, the Hindu victim is exploited to convert, with non-Hindus taking advantage of their poverty. In such cases, the Hindu victim who is suffering financially is offered monetary benefits, including lucrative offers for jobs, health treatment, education, etc, to induce the victim into changing his/her religion. In such cases, the religious identity of the victim and the aim to disenfranchise him from his faith form the heart of the crime. Also, taking advantage of and exploiting an individual’s economic vulnerabilities is widely acknowledged as exploitation, forms of which are often penalised by law. Such cases therefore are considered religiously motivated hate crimes since the victim’s religious identity forms the very heart of the crime itself. This case has been added to the tracker because it reflects a systematic and exploitative effort to undermine and erase the religious identity of poor and vulnerable tribal Hindus. The khadim deliberately targeted socio-economically weak Hindu families, using superstition, emotional manipulation, and false promises of spiritual reward to induce them into building mazars and gradually detach from their ancestral faith. These individuals were not presented with any theological argument or free choice but were instead lured with fabricated claims and misleading rituals, exploiting their distress and lack of religious literacy. Such acts qualify as a hate crime because they are not isolated spiritual interactions but are rooted in a supremacist intent to diminish Hindu belief systems and assert Islamic religious structures over Hindu spaces, often literally, by constructing mazars on private Hindu land. The targeted deception and religious coercion, especially when aimed at vulnerable and uneducated Hindus, reflect not only contempt for their agency but also a larger pattern of cultural erasure. The fact that money was being regularly extracted from these structures by the khadim further shows how religious manipulation was tied to personal and institutional gain. The combination of spiritual fraud, inducement through fabricated outcomes, and exploitation of poverty marks this as a clear case of religiously motivated hostility toward Hindus, warranting its documentation in the Hinduphobia Tracker.
Case Status
Complaint filed
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
