Hindu businessman and his family assaulted by Muslims amid harassment in Uttar Pradesh

Case ID : f66481e | Location : Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Thu, 6 March, 2025

Case ID : f66481e

Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, India

6 March, 2025

Hindu businessman and his family assaulted by Muslims amid harassment in Uttar Pradesh

Attack not resulting in death

Communal clash/attack

Attacked for Hindu identity

Case Summary

In Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, a Hindu businessman named Monu was physically assaulted by a group of Muslim youths over a parking dispute, escalating communal tensions in the area. According to media reports, in the Subhash Nagar area of Ayodhya, Monu was brutally beaten by a group of Muslim men following a parking dispute. The assailants entered Monu’s house and attacked him and his family members. Monu alleged that the men had been harassing him for several days, preventing him from conducting his business properly. The police were notified of the incident, and they arrived at the scene. The dispute turned communal, therefore, additional police forces were deployed in the area to prevent further disturbances. City Kotwali in-charge Ashwini Pandey launched an investigation to identify and apprehend the accused.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the category of- Attack not resulting in death. Under this, the first sub-category selected is- Attack 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 sub-category selected here 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. Here, two key religious markers indicate that the violence was not merely a personal dispute but had a religious motive. While the initial trigger for the violence may have been a non-religious parking dispute, the escalation of the attack—with a group of Muslim assailants forcefully entering Monu’s house and assaulting his family members—suggests a deliberate attempt to intimidate and dominate him. This shift in the nature of the attack indicates that it was not merely a personal dispute but had a religious undertone. Secondly, the victim stated that the accused had been harassing him for several days, disrupting his business and daily life. This indicates that the attack was not an isolated incident but part of a larger pattern of intimidation. Given the religious identities involved, this harassment and subsequent violence suggest a communal angle, reinforcing that Monu was targeted not just as an individual but also as a Hindu businessman. These factors strongly suggest that Monu was attacked for his Hindu identity and this is why this case has been added to the tracker.