Hindu homes attacked, shop vandalised, girls harassed by Muslim minors

Case ID : a4aed3a | Location : Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Thu, 11 April, 2024

Case ID : a4aed3a

Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh, India

11 April, 2024

Hindu homes attacked, shop vandalised, girls harassed by Muslim minors

Attack not resulting in death

Attacked for Hindu identity

Case Summary

In Ghazipur district of Uttar Pradesh, several houses belonging to Hindus were attacked with stones, leading to an FIR filed against five members of the Muslim community. Two arrests were made in connection with the case on April 12, 2024. The complainant alleged that the attacks were part of a conspiracy to intimidate them. The Bajrang Dal accused troublemakers from the Muslim community of harassing Hindu girls and vandalising houses after chewing betel. The incidents occurred in the Dildarnagar police station area, with Shiv Vilas Gupta reporting that his house was targeted twice, identified through CCTV footage. Abhimanyu Chaurasia's shop was also vandalised on the same night. He highlighted the recurrent losses suffered by Hindus during Muslim festivals and reported ongoing harassment in Usiya village. It was also reported that there is almost an equal population of Hindus and Muslims in the area and Abhimanyu said that he did not know why his house was attacked. All accused named in the FIR were reportedly minors. They were granted bail after being taken into custody.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

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, the Hindus testified that they were regularly harassed and attacked by the local Muslim population and the main complainant, Abhimanyu, was not aware why his house and shop was attacked. Another Hindu complained that his house was targeted twice and he too, was not aware why he was targeted. There is a strong suspicion that the harassment is aimed at inducing migration in the area. Further, the complainants also said that the Hindus of the area were regularly targeted during Islamic festivals. These kind of attacks, which has no initial trigger, is driven by hostility towards Hindus based on their religious identity and therefore, is added to the hate crime database. Disclaimer: There are potentially several victims in the village owing to attacks by the Muslim perpetrators and the continuous harassment faced by them. However, since there are two confirmed complainants, this tracker, for the sake of accuracy, is recording the victim count as two.