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 20 January to 27 January 2024, we hope to provide a snapshot of such crimes and hopefully awaken more people around the world to this human rights crisis:
Bharat
1) Gujarat Police officials said that they fired teargas shells at a crowd after it pelted stones at the Shobha Yatra of Prabhu Sri Ram in Mehsana district. Police also detained 15 people in a combing operation.
2) An Islamist mob violently attacked a Shobha Yatra in Mumbai’s suburb Mira Road on 21 January night around 11 pm. Police have reportedly arrested five persons in connection with the case. The assault left several Hindus, including women, injured. This incident follows the familiar pattern of pelting stones and attacking Hindu Shobha Yatras.
3) Nirmala Sitharaman slams DMK Govt over the removal of LED Screens at Kanchipuram Temple, where she was to watch Ram Mandir Pran Pratishtha.
4) Bihar Police arrested a 21-year-old man named Intekhab Alam for threatening to “blow up” Ram Mandir in Ayodhya on 22 January. As per reports, the accused, Intekhab Alam, was arrested from the Araria district. According to the police, the accused has no criminal record and seems to be mentally unstable.
5) Mohammad Abdul Wahid, a teacher in a school in Budhar town in the Shahdol district of Madhya Pradesh, brutally beat a class 7 student for chanting Jai Shri Ram in the classroom. The teacher was arrested after the parents of the student and Hindu organisations staged a protest over this incident. He was booked under various sections of IPC and the Juvenile Justice Act. The school’s director, Sameer Niyazi, was also implicated in this case.
6) A horrifying incident unfolded in Uttarakhand’s Dehradun, where a young woman had a narrow escape when a 35-year-old stalker named Riyas, a resident of Kerala, molested her and tried to throw acid on her. This distressing event occurred in the Bhaniyawala area, falling under the jurisdiction of the Doiwala police station.
7) Ultra-Communist students allegedly attacked the Hindu students for organising a special Puja and Havan on the occasion of Sri Ram Mandir Pran Pratishtha. While some students were busy placing saffron-coloured Sri Ram flags, some communist students attacked them.
8) In the lead-up to the inauguration of the Ram Mandir on 22 January, a local school in Chikkamagaluru, St. Joseph School, has sparked controversy by allegedly threatening students with a Rs. 1,000 fine if they choose to take a leave on the historic day.
9) A poster of Sri Ram was torn in Bengaluru Rural, and a woman abused PM Modi while shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ as Hindus distribute sweets in Shivamogga.
10) A Hindu religious procession at a village in Gujarat’s Vadodara district was marred by violence. The incident took place at Bhoj village under Padra taluka of the district during a Shobha Yatra, which was being taken out to celebrate the Pran Pratishtha of Prabhu Ram’s murti in Ayodhya’s Ram temple. Tensions escalated when a group allegedly hurled stones at the participants, resulting in one injury.
11) In a shocking incident, a Kali Mata temple was attacked in Murshidabad district of West Bengal. Unknown miscreants broke the Murti of Kali Mata and Bhagwan Shiva.
12) A minor girl was molested and shot dead by stalker Usman Malik in UP’s Meerut.
13) In Rajasthan’s Hanumangarh, a girl was kidnapped by Muslims at gunpoint and gang-raped. The police are investigating the matter. According to the information received from the police, the victim had gone to get medicine along with her mother in the Rawatsar area. On the way, three people named Saddam Pathan, Hussain, and Anand kidnapped the girl after threatening her and her mother with a gun.
14) Stones were pelted on Hindus celebrating Pran Pratishtha in Karnataka’s Belagavi.
15) Islamists attacked another Shobha yatra celebrating the Pran Pratishtha of Ram Lalla in Ayodhya. The incident was reported from Maharashtra’s Solapur. Arjun Shentri, Nagesh Hatture, Jayraj Gavde, and Sagar were hospitalized after being seriously injured.
16) Gadag Police in Karnataka arrested a miscreant identified as Tajuddin Dafedar for creating and posting a morphed picture of Ayodhya’s Ram Mandir on social media. The morphed picture was posted on Facebook in which the accused had added Pakistani flags atop the Ram Mandir. He had also inscribed ‘Babri Masjid’ at the bottom of the picture.
17) The police have arrested Farhan, the jilted lover who shot dead a 17-year-old girl in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut after she resisted his advances.
18) Islamists attacked the Ram Mandir Pran Pratishtha rally in the Muhammad Bazaar of West Bengal’s Birbhum.
19) In Jharkhand, Hindu processions were targeted at many places for celebrating Ram Mandir Pran Pratishtha. Arson and stone-pelting were reported from the state.
20) Pilibhit Police arrested Divya Yashasvi for using derogatory language against Bhagwan Ram and Mata Sita on social media. Yashasvi, who calls himself “a brutal atheist”, published multiple derogatory posts on the social media platform X (formerly) Twitter, leading to outrage.
21) Secularism took a drastic new turn. This time, it was Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee‘s turn to display this type of secularism. The highlight of Mamata’s speech is when Mamata Banerjee says, “In this battle, we will fight. Those who are kafir, those who are scared, they die. Those who fight, they survive, they do the work.” She even used the words “Allah ka kasam”, meaning I swear by Allah.
22) “Kill as many Hindus as you can, don’t leave them alive”, noted the FIR. It also revealed how a Muslim mob attacked Ram Yatra in Vadodara’s Bhoj.
23) Stones were collected stones in advance, and sword-wielding persons attacked Shri Ram’s Shobha Yatra in Mehsana’s Kheralu. Thirty-two persons were booked, and 15 were arrested for pelting stones.
24) Congress attacked Ram Mandir, with Kharge saying, “People’s stomachs will not be filled by showing them God’s picture.”
25) In a village called Sangthu in Bihar’s Jamui district, Hindu devotees participating in a procession celebrating the Ayodhya Shri Ram Mandir Pran Pratishtha were attacked by Islamists.
26) A case of alleged kidnapping has been reported from the Tinsukia district of Assam. The family of the kidnapped girl alleged that their daughter had been kidnapped by a Muslim youth named Sahajad and was taken to Uttar Pradesh. As per the reports, the victim, Neha Sahu, is a college student and a resident of Digboi.
27) Islamists in Bareilly attacked a Hindu family for celebrating Ram Mandir Pran Pratishtha.
28) Zubair, who raped a Dalit girl in Noida and blackmailed her to convert to Islam, was arrested.
29) In Kawardha, Chhattisgarh, some measure of justice has been served in the brutal murder of gau sevak Sadhram Yadav. Authorities took decisive action on Thursday by demolishing a shop and other unauthorized encroachments in the front portion of the residence belonging to the prime culprit, Ayaz Khan.
30) Tamil Nadu, whose leaders want to eradicate Sanatan Dharma, gave a ‘communal harmony’ award to fake news peddler and Islamist Mohammad Zubair.
31) Widow mother fights to recover 13-year-old daughter who was reportedly abducted by influential brick kiln owner Masoom Khan in UP’s Pilibhit.
32) Sayyad Tabrez (19) groomed & abducted a minor Hindu girl (15) in Karnataka’s Mandya. IANS painted it as ‘adolescent love.’
33) In the Bathinda district, Shaina, who works in a salon at Bank Bazaar in Rama Mandi, posted a video on Instagram on Wednesday night (24 January) insulting Bhagwan Ram and his devotees. After the video went viral, the traders, Hindu religious organizations, and locals in Rama Mandi closed the market on Thursday as a protest.
34) Indore Police arrested Pinki Chouhan and her former boyfriend, Mohsin Khan, for the murder of junior railway engineer Dikshant Pandya. Dikshant’s body was discovered near a lake in Khodna village with four bullet wounds. Investigations revealed that Pinki and Mohsin planned the murder because Dikshant wanted to live together with Pinki in Ratlam, but the latter disagreed.
35) A rally celebrating Pran Pratishtha passing through minority dominated area was attacked in Howrah, leading to clashes. Several persons, including cops, were injured in stone pelting.
36) A 37-year-old man was arrested for allegedly performing an illegal abortion and establishing a medical practice with a fake certificate, the police said. According to the police, the accused, Mohammad Saurabh, had attained his MBBS degree in China. He was allegedly practising illegally since 2014 without registration with the Medical Council of India (MCI).
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 burnt down a boat and fishing nets of Hindu fishermen. The boat and nets were the only medium of livelihood. The incident happened in Domkhali village under the Saherkhali Union of the district.
World
1) The Western media propaganda machinery went into hyperactive mode ahead of the Ayodhya Ram Mandir Pran Pratishtha on 22 January. Global media publications like Deutsche Welle (German broadcaster DW), BBC, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, The Economist, etc. started publishing and broadcasting one-sided and non-objective news reports and feature analyses of the Ayodhya Ram Mandir issue even days before the Mandir Pran Pratishtha ceremony.
2) InsightUK exposed the propaganda and prejudice in some global media outlets’ coverage of Ram Mandir.
3) Hindu New Zealanders condemned false reporting by New Zealand media outlets on Shri Ram Mandir in Ayodhya.
4) The Hindu diaspora in the West raised its voice against biased and false reporting of the Ram Mandir Pran Pratishtha.
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.
