Hindu man stabbed by Muslim youth for opposing religious conversion attempt in Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh

Case ID : e6919ea | Location : Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Fri, 26 December, 2025

Case ID : e6919ea

Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh, India

26 December, 2025

Hindu man stabbed by Muslim youth for opposing religious conversion attempt in Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh

Attack not resulting in death

Attacked for opposing radicals or trying to save victim

Attacked for Hindu identity

Case Summary

In the Tarkapur area of Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh, a Hindu man named Manish Gaur was brutally stabbed with a knife by a Muslim youth named Waris after opposing a religious conversion attempt. The incident occurred on 27 December 2025, when Manish Gaur, a resident of Sankatmochan Mohalla, was warming himself near a bonfire in the DJ Colony around 10 pm. At that time, the Muslim accused, Waris, who was released on bail, arrived at the spot and engaged in an argument with the victim. Thereafter, the accused violently attacked the victim with a knife, brutally injuring him before fleeing the scene. Local residents immediately rushed to the spot and took the seriously injured victim to the district hospital, and due to the severity of his facial injuries, doctors later advised plastic surgery after the wounds healed. The attack created tension in the locality, prompting the deployment of a heavy police force to maintain law and order. A case was registered on the basis of a written complaint submitted by Manish Gaur’s cousin, and during the investigation, the police detained and questioned four close relatives of the accused. The Additional Superintendent of Police (City), Nitesh Singh, confirmed that the accused Waris was taken into custody and legal proceedings were initiated. During the investigation, family members and locals revealed that approximately six months earlier, in July 2025, the accused was arrested in a case involving the forcible conversion of a Hindu woman. Manish Gaur had openly opposed the accused in the religious conversion case, and he actively supported the victim to secure justice. Waris was jailed in that case and, being a minor at the time, was sent to a children’s home in Varanasi, from where he was recently released on bail.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category of - Attack not resulting in death. Within it, the sub-category selected is - Attacked for opposing radicals or trying to save victim. In several cases, Hindus are attacked for opposing religiously motivated crimes being committed against a fellow Hindu or simply for voicing an opinion opposing radical elements, who either have in the past or continue to persecute Hindus. In such cases, the initial attack against the victim, against which the Hindu was trying to defend the victim, would also need to be classified as a religiously motivated hate crime. Since the initial crime itself was religiously motivated and the subsequent crime of attempting to save the victim or speaking against the radical elements ends up inviting a violent attack, it would also be classified as a religiously motivated hate crime under this category. The other sub-category 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 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. This case qualified as a hate crime against Hindus because the act of violence was directly triggered by the victim’s opposition to a religious conversion attempt by the accused and was intended to punish, silence and intimidate a Hindu individual for resisting religious subversion. Manish Gaur was not attacked due to a personal dispute or random altercation but because he had openly opposed the forcible conversion of a Hindu woman and had actively supported efforts to secure justice in that case. The accused, Waris, targeted and stabbed Manish Gaur after his release on bail, demonstrating retaliatory intent rooted in religious hostility rather than an isolated criminal impulse. The assault took place in a public space and involved a sudden, brutal knife attack aimed at causing severe injury, reinforcing the message that Hindus who challenge conversion activities would face violent consequences. The background of the accused’s prior involvement in a forced conversion case established a clear ideological context, where violence was used as a tool to avenge resistance to religious coercion and to deter others within the Hindu community from speaking out. Such an attack went beyond personal enmity and functioned as a form of communal intimidation, where the victim was targeted specifically for his Hindu identity and his defence of Hindu religious autonomy. By inflicting serious harm on a Hindu man for opposing conversion, the perpetrator sought to enforce fear and suppress dissent within the community, fulfilling the criteria of a hate crime in which motive, target and message were all rooted in religious animosity towards Hindus.