As Uttar Pradesh, one of India’s most polarised states, votes for a new government, the spotlight is on its 40 million Muslims. Hindi’s Kirti Dubey tracked the status of four cases involving hate crimes against Muslims during Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s tenure.
“He used to carry a thin towel on his shoulder. They stuffed that in his mouth as they killed him,” said Kamrun Ali, wiping away her tears.
Her husband, Anwar Ali, was allegedly killed by a Hindu mob in March 2019 when he tried to prevent them from destroying an Islamic religious structure near his house in Sonbhadra district.
Police arrested 18 people – all local Hindus, including some minors – over his death but they were granted bail within a few months.
Ms Ali said her family is still waiting for justice.
Lynchings and hate speech targeting Muslims have regularly made headlines since 2014, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept to power.
Critics say the accused are often supporters of the party – and that anti-Muslim rhetoric by BJP leaders has emboldened them. The BJP denies the accusations, but its leaders rarely condemn such incidents.
The 2015 killing sent shock waves around the world but in the years since there have been several such attacks on Muslims.
Some of the worst incidents have happened in UP, where the BJP’s Yogi Adityanath, a saffron-robed Hindu priest who has often made inflammatory speeches, became chief minister in 2017.
It’s hard to say how many lynchings or hate crimes happen every year – in 2017, India’s crime records bureau collected the data but did not publish it.
In the four cases examined by the BBC, victims’ families alleged police apathy and said they were dissatisfied with the cases’ progress. The accused are out on bail in three of the cases, while no one has been arrested yet in the fourth, more than seven months later.
Prashant Kumar, additional director general of law and order in the state, denied allegations of police indifference and inefficiency.
“The public has no right to beat anyone and if such incidents happen we take strict action against the accused,” he said.
But Mohammed Asad Hayat, a criminal lawyer who represents victims of hate crimes, alleged that the police’s reluctance to anger powerful people has weakened such investigations.
“Lynchings happen under a political agenda,” he said.
Meanwhile victims’ families say they are living in fear, and some have even fled their homes.
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