Hindu men brutally attacked by Muslim group after being asked ‘are you Indian?’ UK politician calls is 'case of religious hatred'

Case ID : ef6543c | Location : London Borough of Harrow, United Kingdom | Date of Incident : Thu, 29 May, 2025

Case ID : ef6543c

London Borough of Harrow, United Kingdom

29 May, 2025

Hindu men brutally attacked by Muslim group after being asked ‘are you Indian?’ UK politician calls is 'case of religious hatred'

Attack not resulting in death

Attacked for Hindu identity

Case Summary

In London, UK, three young Hindu men named Ravi, Yash, and Neel were brutally attacked at a public park by three Muslim men after asking about their ethnic identity. The three Hindu men had gone to the park to play cricket with friends. They later went to buy snacks from a nearby shop. On their way to the shop, they passed by a café where a Muslim family of 7 to 8 members, including women wearing hijab, was sitting. While leaving the cricket area, they briefly glanced back to acknowledge their friends still playing. Somehow, the Muslim family believed that the Hindu men were looking at them. One of the male members from the Muslim family aggressively confronted the Hindu men, questioning, “What’s your problem? What are you looking at?” Ravi, who was also wearing a kalawa / sacred thread, and his friends calmly explained that they were merely looking back at the cricket game. Ravi apologised and said, "I’m sorry if you think we were looking at you, but we weren’t.” The confrontation initially died down, and all of them walked. However, around 6:00 PM, while the three friends were seated on a bench, they were approached again by three male members of the same family, with whom they had a confrontation earlier. The Muslim men became verbally aggressive, standing close and questioning them about their background, asking, “What are you? Where are you from? are you local? Are you Indian? Are you Sri Lankan?” One of the Hindu men responded with a yes. After this, the Muslim men began violently attacking them. The Hindu men were violently assaulted and punched repeatedly, with the attackers preventing them from getting up or escaping. Ravi and Yash sustained severe head injuries and lost consciousness during the assault. Ravi only regained awareness while paramedics were treating him. He was later hospitalised with a facial fracture under the eye, a nasal injury, and a lacerated eyebrow requiring stitches. Neel, who remained conscious, provided a police statement on the night of the incident. Ravi and Yash gave their statements several days later due to their injuries. Despite the religious and ethnic dimension of the incident, local police have downplayed racial or religious motivation. As of the date of writing this report, no arrests were made, and the investigation was ongoing. The matter was also raised in the UK Parliament by Tory MP Bob Blackman, who called it a case of religious hatred and urged the Home Secretary to take a firm stance.

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 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 has been added to the tracker because three Hindu men were attacked and brutally assaulted by a group of Muslim men after they were deliberately questioned about their ethnic identity and, by extension, their religious identity. The perpetrators specifically asked: "Where are you from?" followed by "Are you Indian?" and "Are you Sri Lankan?". These questions were not random; they were a calculated attempt to determine the Indian identity of the victims, and, by extension, their Hindu identity. It is pertinent to note that Muslim extremists harbour specific animosity towards Hindus and their faith and also view India as a Hindu collectivity. So, asking such questions was their way of confirming whether the individuals were Hindu, either by ethnicity or national identity. It is also important to note that one of the victims was wearing a kalava, a sacred Hindu thread, which acted as a visible religious marker and likely further confirmed his Hindu identity to the attackers. Furthermore, it is important to note that there was no physical confrontation the first time; it was only a verbal confrontation. The Muslim men initially walked away, only to return later and launch a sudden, organised, and violent attack on the three Hindu men. This indicates clear premeditation. They regrouped and then chose to attack. This pattern has been seen time and time again, where Muslims tend to launch a violent attack over a minor disagreement or scuffle, especially against Hindus. It happens because the Islamic faith sees other faiths, especially Hinduism, as inferior and treats them with contempt. Within such a supremacist mindset, acts of violence against non-Muslims, particularly Hindus, are often seen as justified or even rewarded. The disproportionate nature of such attacks, often sparked by minor disagreements or even just visible markers of Hindu faith, underscores the deep-rooted religious animosity towards Hinduism and India. In this case, the questions asked were not random; instead, they were a targeted mechanism to confirm the victim's Hindu identity before initiating violence. The fact that UK MP Bob Blackman raised this incident in the British Parliament and explicitly framed it as an act of religious hatred reinforces the conclusion that this was not a random act of violence but a premeditated, identity-based hate crime. His intervention highlights the seriousness of the issue and calls out the growing anti-Hindu bigotry that has often been ignored or underreported by British authorities and mainstream media. This incident cannot be viewed in isolation. It must be placed in the broader context of rising Hinduphobia in the United Kingdom, most notably seen in incidents like the 2022 Leicester violence/pogrom, where Hindu homes, temples, and individuals were openly targeted by Islamist mobs. One must understand that Indians, especially Hindus, are among the most successful and prosperous diasporas in the UK. This economic standing, combined with the deep-rooted religious animosity that Abrahamic faiths (Islam and Christianity) have historically shown towards polytheists like Hindus, is resulting in increased hatred and violence. These crimes are not just driven by financial jealousy; they are also religiously motivated, fuelled by a supremacist worldview, similar to what Jews faced in Nazi Germany.