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 17 July to 23 July 2022, we hope to provide a snapshot of such crimes and hopefully awaken more people around the world to this human rights crisis:

Bharat

1) In another horrific incident in West Bengal, three Hindu TMC workers, including Gopalpur gram panchayat member Swapan Majhi, were murdered. The other two victims are Jhantu Halder and Bhootnath Pramanik.

2) A DMK MP has objected to Bhumi puja being performed while initiating government projects. The MP demanded that a padre, imam, and atheists also be present in the event to maintain the ‘secular’ aspect of the state. The poor Brahmin pujari, who was called to perform the puja, was rudely asked to remove the puja items and go away.

3) A 12-year-old girl was abducted and gang raped by four Muslims in the Bithri Chainpur area of Bareilly, UP police said. The incident occurred Friday when the girl, a Class seven student, was abducted and raped by the four accused, two of whom – Shahrukh and Owais – have been arrested.

4) Dangerous criminal mafias have exposed the soft underbelly of the Indian state once again. Two police officers have been crushed to death in two incidents in Haryana and Jharkhand.

4) Earlier this month, Sultanpur police arrested Irfan (26) and two others for murdering a mother-daughter duo. by brutally slitting their throats. The murder reportedly took place on June 28. The other two accused have been identified as Irfan’s brother Shadaan and Shehzad. The victims are Shakuntala (50) and her daughter Vijay Lakshmi (22).

5) On Wednesday, a group of Muslim 13 men stabbed a Bajrang Dal member for supporting Nupur Sharma. The incident occurred in the Agar Malwa district of Madhya Pradesh. MP Police registered a case of an attempt to murder and rioting against the 13 accused.

6) Three persons were arrested in Gujarat’s Surat city on Friday for allegedly threatening a businessman for uploading suspended BJP leader Nupur Sharma’s photo on Instagram, police said.

7) In an incident similar to the Udaipur killing, a youth was stabbed in Bihar’s Sitamarhi district reportedly after he updated his social media status with a picture of suspended BJP leader Nupur Sharma whose controversial remarks against Muhammad sparked a massive row.

8) According to the reports, the Kanwariyas, hailing from Alwar, Rajasthan, is on a 14-day of Kanwar Yatra in which they fetch the holy Ganga water from Haridwar for the Shiv temple in Alwar.

9) In the Nuh district of Haryana, 59-year-old DSP Surender Singh Bishnoi was mowed down by a truck when he was probing into unlawful stone mining.

10) A 24-year-old Pakistani national with a plan to kill suspended Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Nupur Sharma for her controversial statement against Mohammad was arrested from the India-Pakistan international border in the Sriganganagar district of Rajasthan.

11) Amid the VVIP presence in Kanpur Dehat, at least six persons were injured after a communal flare-up in a locality of Kanpur Nagar as members of the Muslim community clashed with the Hindu community people and also the police on Friday.

Bangladesh

Attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh are relentless and designed to gradually cleanse the religious minority from the country. 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 some tools used to intimidate and drive Hindus out.

1) Bangladesh has witnessed yet another pogrom against Hindus over allegations of ‘blasphemy’ against Islam’s Prophet Mohammad. This time, dozens of Hindu homes, shops, and temples were targeted in a village in the Narail district.

2) A group of 25-30 Islamist militants led by Abul Khayer Bokshi, kin of a ruling party (Bangladesh Awami League) leader, attacked a Hindu temple & vandalized 3 murtis of Hindu deities, including Maa Kali, Maa Saraswati & Radha-Krishna in Mirzapur sub-district under Tangail district of the central region of Bangladesh.

3) Adding on to the series of tortures on the Hindus, a recent viral video on Twitter shows that some unidentified miscreants have thrown beef remains at Hindu homes. Reportedly, the video is from Kishorganj in Bangladesh’s Nilphamari. Shared by Advocate Dr. Gobinda Chandra Pramanik, a Bangladeshi Hindu activist, the video mentions that at midnight of Eid this year, beef waste was intentionally thrown at Hindu homes.

4) A Hindu nurse has been murdered allegedly by her Muslim employer after being raped. The incident was reported on Monday, July 11, from Bhairab Upazila in Bangladesh’s Kishoreganj district. The deceased has been identified as Rima Pramanik, daughter of Sentu Pramanik, and was a resident of Pirizkandi village under Raipura Upazila in the Narsingdi district.

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, but the double standards at play become clear 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 dropping an email to [email protected]. We also solicit support in maintaining the Hindu human rights tracker database.