Hindu extremists vandalize Muslim shops in Uttarakhand
In Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled Uttarakhand’s Tehri, Hindu extremist groups vandalized stores belonging to Muslims after reports surfaced that a Muslim man kidnapped a Hindu girl. The extremist groups demanded that all Muslim-owned shops must close down as collective punishment.
This incident comes amid growing communal tensions in Uttarakhand. Recently, protests in Uttarkashi turned violent when Hindu extremists demanded the demolition of a decades-old mosque.
BJP leader threatens to “burn down shops” and “gouge out eyes” of Muslims
At a hate speech rally in in BJP-ruled Uttarakhand, senior BJP leader, Lakhpat Bhandari, threatened to “burn down shops belonging to members of the minority (Muslim) community” and to “gouge out their eyes” if they targeted Hindu girls under the pretext of “love jihad.”
Love Jihad is a debunked anti-Muslim conspiracy theory that claims Muslim men have an agenda to seduce and convert Hindu women.
Mob pelts stones on Muslim leaders’ homes in Karnataka over false rumors
A Hindu mob pelted stones at the homes of Muslim leaders in Karnataka’s Haveri after newspaper reports suggested that residential properties would be transferred to the Muslim-run Waqf board. Hindu mobs claimed that they feared eviction.
Hindu militants demand shutdown of madrasa in Uttar Pradesh over baseless allegations
Hindu militants from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) staged a protest against a madrasa in Uttar Pradesh’s Kaushambi, falsely accusing the management of “foreign funding”, “cow slaughter”, “religious conversion” and “love jihad”. They also demanded legal action against the Muslims who study and teach in the madrasa.
In July, the Uttar Pradesh government also announced a biometric attendance system for the madrasa Board to “supervise” and “check” alleged “terrorist links” of young students, who are just in the early phase of education. In April, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath declared to close more than 16,000 madrasas and instructed the administration to transfer them to government schools.
