Attacks on Hindus and Hindu Dharma, both in Bharat and overseas, are frequent and unrelenting. In many regions of the world, this persecution is like a genocide slowly unfolding before our eyes. For decades, the world has ignored the actual depth and breadth of these attacks, driven by disturbing anti-Hindu bigotry. From murders, forced conversions, land grabs, assault on festivals, desecration of temples and murtis, hate speech, and sexual violence to institutionalized & legal discrimination, Hindus are facing an increasing assault on their very existence along with an unprecedented Hindu hatred.

In this weekly summary for the period from 25 November to 2 December 2023, we hope to provide a snapshot of such crimes and hopefully awaken more people around the world to this human rights crisis:

Bharat

1) Azad Riyazuddin Ansari was sentenced to three years in prison for his derogatory post about Bhagwan Ganesha on Facebook.

2) The Tripura Railway protection force apprehended 10 illegal Bangladeshi intruders in Agartala. Two Indian agents were arrested by them.

3) Three illegal immigrants were arrested from a village near the India-Bangladesh International Border in Murshidabad district. The three persons arrested have been identified as Jalem Sheikh, Noor Alam and Iran Sheikh. All of them are residents of Rajsahi in Bangladesh. Four mobile SIM cards were recovered from their possessions.

4) During the Khatu Sham Yatra in Punjab’s Patiala district, particularly in the Nabha region, women devotees encountered mistreatment from a group of children belonging to the Muslim community. These children, affiliated with a shop owned by a member of the Muslim community, allegedly threw toilet cleaner on the participating women, resulting in severe allergies among the victims.

5) In an unsettling incident in Ramgarh, Jharkhand, girls returning home from RB High School in Sandi, Chitarpur, were allegedly surrounded by a group of Muslim youths. According to reports, the girls were coerced into chanting ‘Islam Zindabad’, and when they refused, the youths reportedly attacked them with sticks, resulting in injuries to approximately 24 individuals, including female students and boys who came to their aid.

6) A case involving the forced conversion of a Dalit eunuch named Muskan to Islam has surfaced in the Muzaffarnagar region of Uttar Pradesh. She filed a police complaint against three other eunuchs, including Preeti, Kaushar Ali and Guddu. She reportedly suffered abuse for refusing to embrace Islam, according to the complaint.

7) While speaking about possible changes in school textbooks, Samajwadi Party MP from Sambhal, Shafiqur Rahman Barq, has raised the demand to include the Quran in the NCERT books. He, however, opposed the purported inclusion of Ramayan and Mahabharata in textbooks.

8) In a shocking incident, a man identified as Lareb Hashmi attacked a 24-year-old bus conductor, Harikesh Vishwakarma, with a cleaver in Prayagraj city, Uttar Pradesh. The assailant accused Vishwakarma of committing ‘blasphemy’ during a heated dispute over a bus ticket fare.

9) A shocking case has emerged in Maharashtra’s Aurangabad district, where a minor girl endured repeated sexual assault over three years at the hands of her mother’s boyfriend, Ashfaq Sheikh. The 15-year-old victim, whose mother is reportedly a ‘love jihad’ victim and has been missing for the past three years, revealed the horrifying details.

10) In a dreadful case of conversion coming to the fore from the state of Maharashtra, two minor girls from the Pune district were tortured and forcefully converted to Christianity. The girls who recently lost their mother were initially forcefully sent to an orphanage in the Daund region, where they were mistreated and forcefully converted. The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) took cognisance of the event and demanded strict action in the case.

11) In Erumeli, a crucial stop for Sabarimala pilgrims, a disturbing incident unfolded as a local tea shop was found using water from a toilet tap for its operations. Upon this revelation, the health department, allegedly owned by Abdul Shehim, swiftly shut down the shop and is also the DYFI Erumeli Regional Secretary.

12) A case of love jihad has come to light from the Isuapur police station area of Chhapra in Bihar’s Saran district. Armaan Ali lured a minor Hindu girl, forcefully converted her to Islam, and assaulted the victim after marriage before leaving her.  

13) In the village of Reechpal Gadhi near Noida, a case of vandalism at a temple has been reported. The police discovered broken murtis of deities. They also suspected that the perpetrators were possibly in an intoxicated state during the incident.

14) Madhya Pradesh (MP) Police have booked a man identified as Irshad Khan. for kidnapping and raping a minor Hindu girl. The girl was rescued on Monday (27 November), four days after missing.

15) In a shocking incident, a bus carrying Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) karyakartas was attacked by a group of bikers on their way to attend the inauguration ceremony of the Deen Dayal Cow Science Research and Training Center in Mathura.

16) The preliminary probe by police has revealed that the bomb threat emails sent to over 15 schools in Bengaluru have some jihadi content. Sources said the letter stated, “Convert to Islam or die under the weight of the sword of Islam. Bismillah, we will spread the true religion of Allah to the whole of India.”

17) A shocking case of love jihad has come to light from Faridabad. The accused changed his name and befriended the minor girl, then made her drink intoxicants before making obscene videos of the minor girl and raped her for a year. According to the victim’s statement, when she became an adult, he forcibly converted her religion and married her. The accused had revealed his name as Veer to lure the girl into his love trap. But after marriage, he told his real name as Arif.

18) An old man named Latif Khan was urinating on the small temples built at Ujjain’s Ramghat. A devotee from Delhi said that he was walking with his family on the banks of Ramghat when he saw Khan urinating at the temples. When they stopped him from doing so, he did not agree. After this, with the help of some people, they caught him and later handed him over to the Mahakal police station.

19) In a disturbing incident in Gujarat’s Khambhalia, a 20-year-old individual, Ahmed Iqbal Bukhari, hailing from a wealthy background, has been apprehended by the Khambhaliya police for heinous crimes against a 12-year-old minor Hindu girl. The shocking details reveal a series of offences, ranging from relentless stalking to coercive demands for ‘friendship’ and, horrifyingly, culminating in sexual assault.

20) In the Sonbhadra district of Uttar Pradesh, the police have booked 42 people and arrested 9 persons after busting an illegal Christian conversion racket. The police on Friday (December 1) informed that they had also seized laptops, Christian literature and propaganda materials from the possession of the arrested accused. Reports say that 12 people have also been taken into police custody for questioning.

21) The Bihar government, led by Nitish Kumar, is facing criticism over its holiday calendar in government schools for the academic year 2024. The RJD-JDU coalition government has reportedly reduced the number of Hindu festival holidays and increased the count of Muslim festivals, stirring a debate on religious favouritism.

22) The Legal Rights Protection Forum (LRPF) raised serious concerns regarding the conduct of Satish Kumar IPS, the Superintendent of Police in Andhra Pradesh’s Kakinada District. The allegations stem from his endorsement of religious and political speeches delivered by foreign nationals, raising questions about potential violations of Bharatiya Visa provisions.

Pakistan

Abduction, rape, forced conversion, and marriage of minor Hindu girls are common occurrences in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. At least 1000 minority girls suffer such sex slavery every year in Sindh province alone. Apart from this, Pakistani Hindus face systemic and institutionalized discrimination and neglect, such as frequent attacks on Hindu temples, demonization of education curriculum, police and judicial antipathy, denial of fundamental rights, and even untouchability. This latest instance of the brutal rape and murder of a Bheel woman in Pakistan is yet another proof of the pitiable condition of Hindu minorities in Pakistan.

1) Pakistan demolished Hinglaj Mata Mandir in Sindh. As disturbing videos of the incident emerged, it came to light that Muslims chanted ‘religious slogans’ as authorities demolished the mandir.

2) In a devastating incident that adds to a distressing trend, 16-year-old Hindu girl Jamna was brutally raped and strangled to death in Kot Ghulam.

Bangladesh

Attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh are relentless and designed to cleanse the religious minority from the country gradually. According to a study by Prof. Abul Barakat of Dhaka University, no Hindus will be left in Bangladesh by 2050 due to systemic and institutionalized persecution. Temple desecration, land grabbing, mob attacks after false blasphemy charges, rape/forced conversion of women, and hate speech are tools used to intimidate and drive Hindus out.

1) Islamists allegedly murdered a Hindu gold trader named Suman Saha in Chattagram. The deceased is a known businessman in Chattagram town. As per the reports, Islamists of notorious Dulu gang members brutally murdered the Hindu businessman. The Police have already arrested three Islamists directly involved in the murder. The arrested are identified as Mofijur Rahman Dulu (56), Muhammad Mamun (38) and Nur Hasan Ritu (28).

World

1) Moulavi Abdul Hameed Sharaee, an Islamic preacher in Sri Lanka, faced backlash after making disparaging comments about Bharatanatyam during an online speech on the Tamil Dawah Media YouTube channel.

Most hate crimes are driven by anti-Hindu bigotry encoded in certain religious teachings and political ideologies. While the anti-Hindu hate in Islamic countries is evident, there is another subtler form of anti-Hindu sentiment within institutions and the public sphere of ostensibly secular states (like India) that provides an enabling environment for Hinduphobia and hate crimes. This subtle, everyday discrimination can be missed unless one studies prevailing laws and patterns. The gradual ban on firecrackers during Diwali is a good example – it might seem pollution-related on the surface. Still, the double standards at play become apparent when one looks at the larger picture of restrictions on Hindu festivals and the lack of sound reasoning behind the ban.

We request all readers to share other anti-Hindu hate crimes that we might have missed in this period in the comments below or by emailing [email protected]. We also solicit support in maintaining the Hindu human rights tracker database.