Hindu home attacked, set ablaze and looted by Muslims amidst Murshidabad anti-Hindu violence

Case ID : aa4b1df | Location : Murshidabad, West Bengal, India | Date of Incident : Thu, 10 April, 2025

Case ID : aa4b1df

Murshidabad, West Bengal, India

10 April, 2025

Hindu home attacked, set ablaze and looted by Muslims amidst Murshidabad anti-Hindu violence

Attack not resulting in death

Attacked for Hindu identity

Communal clash/attack

Attacked to induce migration from non-Hindu dominated area

Case Summary

Amidst the anti-Hindu violence that Muslims unleashed in Murshidabad under the guise of protests against the newly enacted Waqf Amendment Act, a Hindu woman, one of the victims, provided a detailed account of the attack on her house by Muslim mobs. The ground reporting conducted by Organiser featured a Hindu woman who recounted horrific details of the attack by a Muslim mob on her home during the anti-Hindu violence in Murshidabad, West Bengal. She explained that she, her husband, their three children, and her mother-in-law were all present in the house at the time when the violence erupted. The Muslim mob first broke down the main gate and then attempted to force their way inside the home. The mother-in-law and the three children hid in a separate room, while the woman and her husband tried to prevent the mob from entering. However, the mob managed to break in, looted everything, and left the house in a dilapidated state. Afterwards, they set the house on fire. The Hindu family feared for their lives until a few local residents intervened, rescued them, and advised them to leave the area for their own safety. The victim stated that she and her family were living in constant fear for their lives. She repeatedly emphasised that they feel terrorised by the attack. The woman appealed to the Border Security Force (BSF) to intervene in the matter. According to the ground report, the police arrived at the scene five hours after the incident, despite the large-scale violence targeting the Hindu community. The testimony of the Hindu victim reinforces that the violence unleashed by Islamists in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district was distinctly communal in nature On 11th April, 2025, Murshidabad district in West Bengal, which has a significant Muslim population, witnessed widespread violence, vandalism, arson, and targeted assaults against the Hindu community, all under the pretext of protests against the newly enacted Waqf Amendment Act. Following the conclusion of Jumma Namaz, mobs went on a rampage in the Suti and Samserganj areas, disrupting train services, damaging public infrastructure, and bringing normal life to a standstill. The office of the Block Development Officer (BDO) was vandalised with stones and sticks, creating an atmosphere of chaos and fear. However, what stands out is the deliberate and systematic targeting of the Hindu community under the guise of these protests. Local reports also suggested that Hindu temples were attacked and idols desecrated. Hundreds of Hindus have been compelled to flee their homes in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district in the wake of an Islamic onslaught carried out under the pretext of protests against the Waqf (Amendment) Bill 2025, an outbreak of violence that has already claimed three lives.

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. The other sub-category selected is- Communal clash/ attack. Communal clash is a form of collective violence that involves clashes between groups belonging to different religious identities. For a communal clash between Hindus and non-Hindus to qualify as a religiously motivated hate crime, the trigger of the violence itself would have to be anti-Hindu in essence. For example, if there is a Hindu religious procession that comes under attack from a non-Hindu mob and after the initial attack, Hindus retaliate in self-defence, leading to a communal clash between the two religious communities. While at a later stage, both communities are involved in the clash/violence, the initial trigger of the violence was by the non-Hindu mob against the Hindus and therefore, it could safely be termed as an anti-Hindu violence. Further, the trigger would also have to be religiously motivated. In the cited example, the attack by the non-Hindu mob was against religious processions and therefore, can be concluded to be religiously motivated. In some cases, the trigger may be non-religious, however, it develops into religious violence against Hindus at a later stage. In such cases too, the foundational animosity towards Hindus becomes the motivating factor of the crime and therefore, it would be classified as a religiously motivated hate crime against Hindus under this category. The third sub-category relevant here is- Attacked to induce migration from a non-Hindu-dominated area. There have been cases where the Hindus living in an area, often with a majority dwelling belonging to non-Hindus or those harbouring animosity towards the Hindu faith, the Hindu residents experience threats and violence. The violence is employed with the aim of making the Hindus leave the area and relocate, so the area could be turned into an exclusive ghetto for adherents of the non-Hindu faith or those who harbor animosity towards the Hindu faith. In several cases, the aim of exodus is explicit. However, in several cases, the demand for exodus of Hindu residents is not explicit, however, violence by non-Hindu residents leaves the Hindu residents no option but to leave the area, thereby, turning the area into an exclusive ghetto of non-Hindu residents. In such cases, there are instances violence against the Hindu residents explicitly. For example, in the Hauz Qazi case of 2019, the Muslim residents claimed that mob violence against the Hindu residents had been triggered by a parking dispute. However, the violence did turn religious with a temple being desecrated and was directed specifically against the Hindu residents. The Hindu residents of the area were clear that the violence was religiously motivated and one of the motives was to affect an exodus of the Hindu residents. In such cases, even though the perpetrators have not explicitly expressed the aim of affecting exodus, the given circumstances and violence and precedent point to the intention of exodus and therefore would be categorized under this sub-category. Such crimes are religiously motivated and therefore, are hate crimes. This case clearly qualifies as a hate crime, as the violence inflicted upon the Hindu family was evidently motivated by their religious identity. The victims were not involved in any sort of provocation or confrontation with the Muslim mob; rather, they were targeted specifically as Hindus during what was described as a protest against the Waqf Amendment Act. Eyewitness accounts revealed that her home was deliberately set on fire, indicating that the perpetrators acted out of religious animosity. The nature of such violence in Murshidabad, which includes looting and burning of houses, demonstrates that they were attacked solely because of their faith. The violence began under the guise of a protest, but escalated into an organised assault targeting one religious group, that is, Hindus. The destruction of Hindu property indicates the religious nature of the violence. Furthermore, the incident exhibits all the hallmarks of a communal attack designed to force Hindus to abandon their homes. The victim had stated that the locals advised her and her family to migrate somewhere else for their safety. This pattern mirrors previous incidents where violence has been used to instil fear and drive out minority communities, effectively transforming areas into exclusive zones for the majority religious group. The destruction of Hindu homes, coupled with the delayed police response, suggests a calculated effort to render the area uninhabitable for Hindus. The communal nature of the assault, combined with its apparent aim of inducing a demographic shift, underscores categorising this case as a hate crime in the Hinduphobia tracker.