Hindus assaulted and threatened by Muslim men for planning to celebrate Hindu festival of Holi

Case ID : f6646fc | Location : Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Sat, 22 February, 2025

Case ID : f6646fc

Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, India

22 February, 2025

Hindus assaulted and threatened by Muslim men for planning to celebrate Hindu festival of Holi

Attack not resulting in death

Attacked for Hindu identity

Restriction/ban on Hindu practices

Restriction on expression of Hindu identity

Case Summary

In Hajiapur, Uttar Pradesh, Hindus who planned a Holi programme were attacked by Muslims. They were beaten and given death threats. The Muslims said, ''If you celebrate Holi, then we will kill you.'' A group of Hindu youths named Laxman, Munna, Shani and Akash were planning to organise a Holi programme in their locality when a group of Muslims named Ayan, Salman, Aman, Rehan, Bhura and Alam who lived in the same locality reached there and attacked them. The Hindus were brutally thrashed with sticks and received death threats. One of the Muslim accused threatened that they would leave a trail of corpses if Hindus celebrated Holi. Laxman, Munna and Akash were injured in this incident. The Hindu victims informed the police. The police reached the spot and handled the situation and they filed a complaint against the six Muslim men and began to look for them. The police managed to arrest two of the accused.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been categorised as a hate crime against Hindus in the Hinduphobia tracker under two primary categories, given the clear religious markers that establish its targeted nature. The first is- Attack not resulting in death and within this, 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. The second category selected is- Restriction/ban on Hindu practices. Under this, 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 categorized as a hate crime. Here, the victims were assaulted solely because they were Hindus engaging in preparations for Holi—a festival deeply rooted in Hindu tradition. The perpetrators did not simply oppose a public gathering but explicitly attacked the Hindu festival itself, reinforcing the religiously motivated nature of the crime. Their threats—“If you celebrate Holi, we will kill you”—make it evident that the attack was not random but rather a calculated attempt to instil fear and suppress Hindu religious expression. The assault was not merely an act of physical violence but a direct attempt to curtail the religious and cultural rights of Hindus. Holi, a festival celebrated with joy and colour, symbolises the triumph of good over evil and is an integral part of Hindu religious and cultural identity. The very fact that Hindus were threatened with death for celebrating their own festival highlights a deliberate effort to suppress their religious expression. The attempt to disrupt Holi celebrations, coupled with death threats, demonstrates an intent to create an environment where Hindus feel unsafe practising their faith—a clear marker of religious persecution. Given these aspects, this case has been added to the Hinduphobia tracker, as it exemplifies a deliberate attack on Hindu identity and an attempt to impose restrictions on Hindu religious practices through coercion and violence.