Muslim leaders dismiss Hindu exodus from Murshidabad, downplay violence and persecution of Hindus
Murshidabad, West Bengal, India 
19 April, 2025
Case Summary
Amidst the anti-Hindu violence that Muslims unleashed in Murshidabad under the guise of protests against the newly enacted Waqf Amendment Act, local TMC leaders, including MLA Amirul Islam, denied that any homes were vandalised or that the Hindu residents had been forced to leave. According to him, those who left did so out of panic and had now started returning to their homes voluntarily. Amirul Islam visited the affected areas with other TMC leaders. During his visit, he met with the families of Chandan Das and Hargobind Das, two Hindu men who were killed during the violence. However, he continued to downplay the severity of the events and maintained that no large-scale destruction or targeted violence had taken place. His remarks contrasted with accounts from victims and local reports that documented fear and trauma within the Hindu community. TMC MP Sameerul Islam, also present during the visit, showed little concern for the families’ distress. He commented that Chandan Das's family had not yet accepted the ₹10 lakh compensation from the state government, but expressed confidence that they would do so eventually. The family, however, had rejected the offer in protest. This comes in the backdrop of large-scale riots, arson, and destruction in Murshidabad district, particularly in the Suti and Samserganj areas, following Jumma Namaz on 11th April 2025. Muslim mobs went on a rampage, damaging railway lines, attacking the Block Development Office with stones and sticks, and bringing public life to a halt. While public infrastructure suffered, it was the targeted nature of attacks against Hindus that stood out—temples were desecrated, idols vandalised, and Hindu households and businesses deliberately destroyed. As the Islamic mob violence intensified, thousands of Hindus were forced to flee their homes, seeking safety from the relentless assault. With three lives lost, the episode stands as yet another instance of orchestrated communal aggression masked as political protest.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category of- Hate speech against Hindus. Under this, the first sub-category selected is- Denial or mocking of genocide/large-scale persecution. Denial or mocking of genocide/large-scale persecution/ethnic cleansing refers to the act of denying or minimizing the fact of the ethnic cleansing and/or genocide and/or religious persecution of Hindus. This often involves denying the scale, mechanisms, religious intent, or even the occurrence of the ethnic cleansing and/or genocide and/or religious persecution of Hindus. Hate speech of this kind involves the dissemination of falsehoods that deny or distort established historical facts or mock the suffering of Hindus by saying that they deserved the persecution, motivated by Hinduphobia. Denying such atrocities is not only about the denial of facts or rewriting/revising history, but it also delegitimises the religiously motivated persecution of Hindus, the religious hate/motivation/animosity that led to the persecution, and dehumanises Hindus as a religious group. Such denial of ethnic cleansing and/or genocide and/or religious persecution of Hindus not only denies the suffering but also paves the way for future/present atrocities and hate speech, inciting prejudice and violence against Hindus. It also provides a justification for violence by delinking religious animosity from religiously motivated crimes committed against Hindus. Since such denial and/or mocking of genocide/ethnic cleansing/atrocities motivated by religious animosity leads to present and future ramifications of creating more hate speech, violence, dehumanisation and delegitimisation, it would be considered hate speech under this category. This case qualifies as a hate crime primarily due to the denial and minimisation of the religious persecution and violence faced by Hindus in Murshidabad. By claiming that the Hindus fled out of fear, rather than acknowledging the specific violence and destruction they faced, the TMC leadership is engaging in the denial of an ethnic cleansing-like event. This act of minimising the persecution not only distorts the facts but also undermines the suffering of the Hindu community, effectively delegitimising the violence and hate directed towards them. Such denial can embolden further hate and violence against Hindus by distancing the religious animosity that motivated the attack from the crimes themselves, paving the way for future prejudices. By downplaying the scale of the violence, portraying it as a result of fear rather than a direct attack on Hindus, and dismissing the accounts of the victims, the authorities contributed to an environment where the persecution of Hindus is trivialised. Hence, this case meets the criteria for hate speech.
Case Status
Unknown
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
