SAJC report: 16 Muslims assaulted in two months as UP records surge in hate crimes, detentions and demolitions
New Delhi: At least 16 Muslims were assaulted in suspected hate crimes in Uttar Pradesh during August and September, even as the state saw a sharp rise in police shootings, arrests, demolitions and restrictions on opposition activity ahead of the 2027 assembly elections, according to the first edition of the Election Watch-UP, 2027 report released by the South Asia Justice Campaign (SAJC).
The bulletin, covering 1 August to 30 September, said at least 70 Muslims were shot and injured in so-called “half-encounters” across 27 districts, most of them accused of cow slaughter or cattle theft, while 152 others were arrested or detained, including seven women held over meat and men jailed for criticising Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath online. Four Muslims were killed in suspected hate crimes in the period, taking the state’s 2026 toll to nine, higher than the seven recorded in all of 2025.
Among those assaulted was a 12-year-old boy attacked after refusing to chant “Jai Shri Ram”. In 14 of the 16 assault cases, no attacker was reported arrested; in two instances, police registered cases against the victims instead.
The report said 21 hate speeches were documented in the two months, with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath himself accounting for 10 of them. It cited his reference to political opponents as “Babur’s followers” and Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya’s remark that madrasa education produces a “terrorist” mindset. No action was recorded against any of the speakers.
At least 34 Muslim homes, businesses and religious structures were demolished in nine incidents, including a century-old mosque in Saharanpur and eight buildings belonging to one family in Kaushambi within five days of a fatal factory blast, allegedly on the chief minister’s orders. The state also withdrew the Madrasa Board’s authority to award degrees, affecting nearly 37,000 students in Islamic schools.
On at least 12 occasions in 10 districts, opposition politicians were placed under house arrest to prevent them from visiting families of those who died in alleged police custody, reaching mosques slated for demolition, or attending events during the chief minister’s visits. The state Congress president was detained three times in September alone.
The report noted that a special court in Muzaffarnagar permitted the government to withdraw a case against 25 Hindutva figures, including BJP leaders, over speeches ahead of the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots that left more than 60 dead, most of them Muslims. It described the documented pattern of violence, arrests and demolitions as part of a broader trend in which elections in Uttar Pradesh have become moments of heightened anti-minority rhetoric and abuse.
SAJC, which calls itself a non-partisan movement for human rights and democracy in South Asia, said the bulletin was intended both to record facts and to serve as an evidentiary basis for early warning ahead of the polls.