Mahashivratri preparations disrupted; Muslims threaten to dump beef inside temple premises in Dibrugarh

Case ID : d327806 | Location : Dibrugarh, Assam, India | Date of Incident : Mon, 9 February, 2026

Case ID : d327806

Dibrugarh, Assam, India

9 February, 2026

Mahashivratri preparations disrupted; Muslims threaten to dump beef inside temple premises in Dibrugarh

Restriction/ban on Hindu practices

Restriction on expression of Hindu identity

Attack not resulting in death

Attack against Hindu devotees

Attacked for Hindu identity

Case Summary

In Assam's Dibrugarh, Hindu devotees were threatened against celebrating Mahashivratri by a group of Muslims on 10 February 2026. The Muslims threatened Hindus that if they celebrated the festival at the temple, the Muslims would throw beef (cow meat) inside its premises. According to the residents, an altercation arose when a group of Miya Muslims from the neighbouring Mirzabag Muslim locality objected to Mahashivratri preparations at a local Shiva temple. The situation escalated after one Miya Muslim confronted Hindu volunteers working at the temple and issued threats aimed at disrupting the annual celebration. He warned, “We will see how you all celebrate Shivratri,” and threatened to create disturbances during the festival. The Muslims also threatened to desecrate the festival by dumping beef inside the temple premises. A Hindu woman from West Basbari stated that her husband, who was engaged in preparatory work at the temple, was verbally threatened, and that she herself was subjected to inappropriate remarks while passing through the area. The incident sparked outrage among local women, who staged a protest demanding immediate action against the accused. Holding placards and raising slogans, the protestors said repeated harassment during religious festivals had created an atmosphere of fear in the locality. The Hindu devotees stated, “We had been celebrating Shivratri peacefully for the past 11 years. Suddenly, threats were issued. We urge the police to take strict action. If any untoward incident occurred, the responsibility would lie with those who failed to act then.” The Hindu residents submitted a signed complaint seeking legal action and also requested the construction of a boundary wall between the two localities to prevent further tension. Police personnel reached the spot after the complaint was filed. However, the Muslim perpetrators were not arrested by the police.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added as a hate crime under two primary categories of the Hinduphobia tracker. The first is: Restriction/ban on Hindu practices. The sub-category selected is: 'Restriction on expression of Hindu identity' An example of the state-affected prejudicial and targeted orders against the Hindu community would be a government denying the right of a Hindu or a group of Hindus to hold a religious procession owing to the animosity of non-Hindu groups. Denial of the religious right of the Hindus to assuage the non-Hindu group, which harbours animosity to a point where it could lead to violence against Hindus, is not only a failure of law and order but is a prejudicial order against Hindus, denying them their fundamental rights to express their religious identity. An example of a hate crime against Hindus by a non-Hindu would be a non-Hindu institution forcing its Hindu employees to abandon religious symbols that a Hindu would wear as an expression of faith owing to inherent prejudice against the faith professed by the victim or a non-Hindu group of people restricting a Hindu group from constructing a place of worship simply because the demography of the area in which the temple is being built is dominated by non-Hindus. Such actions are driven by religious animosity and/or prejudice against Hindus and their faith and would therefore be categorised as a hate crime. Another primary category is- Attack not resulting in death. Within this, the first sub-category selected is- Attack against Hindu devotees. Hindu devotees are a few of the easiest targets of religiously motivated hate crimes because, during the festival/procession/puja, etc., for non-Hindus, it is easy to profile their victims based on religion. Hindu devotees come under attack on several occasions by individual non-Hindus or mobs of non-Hindus owing to their animosity against Hinduism, its symbols and tradition/practices. There are several instances of Hindu devotees being attacked while they worship in temples or temporary religious structures, during religious processions, doing bhajan/kirtan/puja in their own homes, in the residential society, etc. These attacks are perpetrated by non-Hindus primarily because of their animosity towards Hindus and their faith. In some cases, the trigger for the violence may be non-religious; however, two elements make these hate crimes. First, the Hindus who come under attack are attacked violently while indulging in religious activity. Whether they are in a place of worship or not is immaterial to the crime. When individuals are attacked while indulging in religious practices, the attack in itself is a hindrance to their freedom to practice religion and therefore constitutes a hate crime. Secondly, religious supremacist doctrines and ideologies deem religious practices of Hindus to be offensive ab initio since they are considered “sinful” by these ideologies, worthy to be annihilated by force or coercion. Driven by these religious supremacist ideologies and doctrines, the attacks against Hindu devotees stem from intrinsic animosity towards Hinduism. In some cases, the trigger for the violence may be non-religious; however, it develops into a religiously motivated crime during the course of the violence. Since these attacks stem from animosity towards Hindus and Hinduism, they are considered religiously motivated hate crimes under this category. The second subcategory selected 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 the 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, cases where the attack led to the death of the Hindu victim/s would be documented. This incident constituted a clear instance of a religiously motivated hate crime by Muslim perpetrators, who sought to prevent Hindu devotees from celebrating Mahashivratri. They threatened to dump beef inside the temple premises if Hindus proceeded with the festival. Such religiously motivated intimidation amounted to a hate crime, driven by deep-seated hatred for Hinduism and its followers. The deliberate targeting of Hindu religious practices exposed an intent to suppress Hindu expression through religious animosity. Mahashivratri holds profound significance for Hindus as one of the most sacred festivals dedicated to Lord Shiva, marking cosmic creation and spiritual renewal through all-night vigils, fasting, and temple rituals that foster communal devotion. The Muslim perpetrators' threats to dump beef, that is, cow meat, inside the temple during Mahashivratri preparations, revealed their aim to stifle public Hindu identity. The holy cow's sacredness in Hinduism, symbolising motherhood, non-violence, and purity, rendered this threat a direct assault on core Hindu sanctity. This demonstrated deliberate efforts to halt Hindu festivities through religious animosity. In this case, Hindu devotees provoked no one; they peacefully prepared for Mahashivratri at their temple when Muslims confronted them with beef-throwing threats. For Hindus, the cow embodies sacred motherhood, and hurling beef into temples constitutes grave religious sacrilege since cow slaughter counts as a profound sin. This calculated intimidation exploited Hindu taboos to terrorise devotees and halt the festival. Such attacks targeted Hindu devotees solely for their religious identity. Mahashivratri faced opposition driven purely by religious animosity, with Hindus facing threats, intimidation, and abuse towards women from the Muslims. This marked a blatant assault on Hindu religious freedoms and intimidation against the community for observing a revered festival. Since this case met the parameters of a hate crime, it was added to the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker. Disclaimer: Media reports stated that multiple Hindu victims were targeted by Muslim perpetrators; however, the total number of victims was not specified. Only two victims, the husband and his wife, were specifically reported in the media. Therefore, these two were recorded as the victims, with the victim count kept at two (2). This is a conservative estimate, as the total number of victims could be higher. Similarly, reports stated that a group of Miya Muslims launched the attack, but only one Muslim were specified in the report who issued the threat directly. Therefore, the perpetrator count was recorded as one(1). This is a conservative estimate, as the number of perpetrators could be higher.