Minor Hindu girl targeted and raped by Muslim man; accused abuses Hindu locals with faith-based slurs

Case ID : d1fb69a | Location : Delhi, Delhi, India | Date of Incident : Wed, 27 March, 2024

Case ID : d1fb69a

Delhi, Delhi, India

27 March, 2024

Minor Hindu girl targeted and raped by Muslim man; accused abuses Hindu locals with faith-based slurs

Attack not resulting in death

Attacked for Hindu identity

Hate speech against Hindus

Anti-Hindu slurs, mocking faith

Case Summary

In Delhi, a Hindu minor girl aged three was religiously targeted, abducted, and raped by a Muslim man named Shakir. The accused, a 38-year-old man, also launched religious slurs towards the Hindu locals who tried to rescue her. According to reports, the incident occurred on 28 March 2024. The accused Shakir had three children. However, some people stated that his name was Shahir, and others claimed it to be Sagir. He absconded after the incident. The matter pertained to the Mianwali Nagar police station area of Delhi, where the Hindu victim lived in a rented house with her family members who worked as labourers to earn a living. The accused also lived with his family in a rented house next door. The little girl was playing outside the residence when the accused picked her up and brought her to his room, where he raped her. People rushed to the scene after hearing the child’s cries. Upon hearing this, the perpetrator left her and began hurrying through the narrow streets. As soon as he noticed the crowd, he abused them, targeting their Hindu identity. He said, "B*h*nch*d!! What will you do, you bastard Hindu? Call Hindus. I’ve done what I had to do." When people entered, they found the girl unconscious in the room. They rushed her to the hospital, where she was bleeding profusely. The victim’s father expressed concern that the girl’s chances of survival were slim. Following this, members of a Hindu organisation learned of the incident and arrived at the scene. Other members of Shakir’s family claimed to be unaware of the incident. Upon receiving information about the incident, police arrived at the scene. The police filed a complaint with the victim’s family and registered a case. Meanwhile, a crowd gathered at the Mianwali Nagar police station, demanding Shakir’s immediate arrest. The angry crowd chanted ‘Jai Shri Ram.’ The Deputy Commissioner of Police of the area arrived and tried to pacify the crowd. Finally, the crowd gave the police 24 hours to arrest the accused and take strict action. At the time of writing this report, the police are gathering evidence and conducting raids to arrest Shakir.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category- Attack not resulting in death. The subcategory selected within this 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. Another primary category selected is- Hate Speech against Hindus. The subcategory selected is- Anti-Hindu slurs, mocking faith. Anti-Hindu slurs and the deliberate mocking of the Hindu faith owing to religious animosity involve the usage of derogatory terms, stereotypes, or offensive references to religious practices, symbols, or figures. One of the common anti-Hindu slurs used against Hindus is “cow-worshipper” and “cow piss drinker”. The intention of using this term is to demean and mock Hindus as a group and their religious beliefs since Hindus consider the cow holy. Additionally, some symbols and the slurs attached to them have a historical context that exacerbates the insult, hate, stereotyping, dehumanisation and oppression against Hindus. Cow worship has been used for centuries to denigrate Hindus, insult their faith and oppress Hindus specifically as a religious group. There has been overwhelming documentation about how cow slaughter has been used to persecute Hindus with cow meat being thrown in temples and places of worship. There has also been overwhelming documentation where cow meat (beef) has been force-fed to Hindus to either forcefully convert them to Islam or denigrate their faith. Apart from cow worship, the Swastika – which holds deep religious significance for the Hindus – has also been misinterpreted and distorted to use as a slur against Hindus. Similarly, the worship of the Shivling has been used by supremacist ideologies and religions to denigrate Hindus owing to religious animosity. Such slurs and denigration stem out of inherent animosity and hate towards Hindus and their faith, therefore, it is categorised as hate speech targeted at Hindus specifically owing to their religious identity. This case is a clear instance of an anti-Hindu hate crime targeting and raping a vulnerable Hindu girl, as well as targeting the Hindu locals who attempted to rescue her. When the Hindu locals intervened, the Muslim accused launched religious insults, abusing them with derogatory slurs intended to demean their Hindu identity. The use of these religious slurs against those trying to protect the girl highlights the accused’s deep-seated hatred and animosity towards the Hindu community. It establishes that the victim was deliberately targeted specifically because of her religious identity. The fact that the accused, motivated by this religious hostility, raped the Hindu girl confirms that the assault was not merely a physical attack but a hateful act aimed at humiliating both the victim and her entire community. This incident reflects a disturbing pattern among Muslim perpetrators who sexually exploit and violate Hindu women with the intent to demean them and the wider Hindu population. Here, the victim’s Hindu identity was the primary reason she was targeted and subjected to rape, clearly marking this as an anti-Hindu hate crime. The accused’s use of religious insults further exposes the religious animosity underlying this crime. These abuses were not random outbursts but calculated expressions of hatred aimed at Hindus intervening to save a Hindu girl from religiously motivated sexual violence. Such hateful tirades illustrate the depth of hostility the accused bore not only towards the victim but the whole Hindu community. This clear expression of religious hatred in conjunction with the violent crime makes this a definitive case of anti-Hindu hate crime. Given that this case meets the parameters of a religiously motivated crime, it is being added to the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker.