Minor Hindu girl kidnapped by Muslim man, communal clash erupts between religious communities

Case ID : f6645d5 | Location : Haridwar, Uttarakhand, India | Date of Incident : Fri, 7 February, 2025

Case ID : f6645d5

Haridwar, Uttarakhand, India

7 February, 2025

Minor Hindu girl kidnapped by Muslim man, communal clash erupts between religious communities

Attack not resulting in death

Attacked for opposing radicals or trying to save victim

Communal clash/attack

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Brainwashed and/or groomed

Family claims grooming

Case Summary

A 15-year-old Hindu girl from Baditipp village in Laksar tehsil, Haridwar district, went missing under suspicious circumstances. When her family began searching for her, they discovered that a man named Wajid had kidnapped her. As the news spread, tensions escalated in the village, leading to a violent clash between the two communities. The confrontation involved stone-pelting, leaving over half a dozen people injured. In response, police teams from multiple stations arrived at the scene and carried out a mild baton charge to disperse the crowd and restore order. The girl’s family filed a complaint against Wajid at Bhikkampur police station, prompting authorities to launch a search operation for both, Wajid and the missing girl. Haridwar Superintendent of Police (Rural) Shekhar Suyal confirmed that the police were actively investigating the case and assured strict action against those involved.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to two distinct primary categories. The first primary category this case has been added to is 'Crimes against women in relationship and other sexual crimes'. The sub-category chosen is 'Brainwashed and/or groomed'. In our database, we have not added incidents where women have converted to another religion of their free will and no allegations of forced/involuntary conversion have been made. However, there are certain cases of conversion where the consent itself is a result of the brainwashing or grooming of a minor by the non-Hindu perpetrator trying to victimise a woman for her Hindu religious identity. The phenomenon of grooming points to non-Hindu perpetrators identifying their Hindu victims’ vulnerabilities and exploiting them over months and sometimes years, to extract the supposed ‘consent’ in order to convert their religion. In most cases of grooming, the victims are minors or the grooming started when the victim was a minor. In other cases of grooming, the non-Hindu perpetrator brainwashes and grooms a minor victim to extract their trust and then proceeds to rape them repeatedly with the intent of converting them to their faith. It is pertinent to understand here that when the victim is a minor, the ‘consent’ to convert or enter into a romantic relationship with an adult itself is redundant – addressed by POCSO. While every case of conversion of a minor and incidents of establishing a physical relationship with a minor by an adult is a crime, for the purpose of this database, a case would be considered a hate crime only if there is a distinct religious angle to the grooming. For example, in the UK, if a Hindu minor is targeted by Pakistani grooming gangs, it would be considered a hate crime because the victims are specifically targeted owing to their non-Muslim religious identity with the perpetrators being Muslim. In other cases, if a Hindu minor is brainwashed into entering a physical relationship with the non-Hindu adult perpetrator and the family alleges grooming/brainwashing of the minor to convert her religion, it would form a part of this database. If the victim is a Hindu adult, the case would form a part of this database only if the victim herself says that she was brainwashed/groomed to convert her religion. However, if the victim is deceased (murdered or otherwise), the case would form a part of this database if her family/friends provided testimony that the victim was brainwashed/groomed to convert her religion. Since these crimes have a distinct religious angle where the victim is being targeted owing to her Hindu religious identity, these cases are considered a hate crime. In this case, reports indicate that the 15-year-old girl - a minor - was kidnapped by the Muslim man. The girl being a minor has no agency to provide consent either for a relationship or for religious conversion. There is no evidence to suggest that minor girl was in a "relationship" with the Muslim man, however, the suspicious disappearance of the Hindu minor does indicate towards the woman being lured and kidnapped by the Muslim youth. The second primary category this case is being added to is 'Attack not resulting in death'. Two sub-categories have been selected in this case. The first sub-category is 'attacked for opposing radicals or saving the 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 second sub-category 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. In this case, it is evident that when the Hindus started looking for the girl and realised that she had been kidnapped by the Muslim man, tensions escalated in the area and thereafter, there was a communal clash, with Muslim mob attacking the Hindus. Had there been no communal angle to the case, one would expect that regardless of religious affiliation, the mob, instead of attacking Hindus, would be motivated to ensure that the minor was found. However, they came in defence of the accused and started a clash between religious communities. For this reason, this case is being added to the Hinduphobia database. Note: In this case, we are adding only the minor girl as the victim in the victim count since among those injured, there is no information how many were Hindus or Muslims.