NEW DELHI (The Thursday Times) — An Indian civil rights group has recorded 322 hate crimes against Muslims and Christians in the first nine months of this year, in which 54 people were killed, and says state authorities took part in more than a third of them.
The Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR) released the figures in New Delhi on Tuesday in two reports drawn from its hate crime and hate speech trackers. They cover January 1 to September 30 across 24 states and union territories.
Of the 322 incidents, 307 targeted Muslims, 14 targeted Christians, and one involved both communities, the group said. At least 488 Muslims and 90 Christians were harassed, attacked, arrested, or driven from their homes, among them 48 children, 26 women, and nine elderly people.
“In the first nine months of 2026, a Muslim or Christian in India was attacked, harassed, arrested, driven from home or killed because of their faith more than once a day, on average,” the report said. “And in one case in every three, the people who were meant to stop it took part.”
Deaths in custody and ‘encounters’
The group said state authorities were involved in 119 of the incidents and in 21 of the deaths: 12 in alleged police or security force “encounters” and nine in custody or prison. Police were involved in 81 cases, it said, and in 40 cases police complaints were filed against the victims themselves.
Among the cases it cited were the deaths of two brothers, Zeeshan and Gulfam, in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, in March, and of Zaheer Shaikh, 70, who died in police custody in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
Most of the incidents against Christians were linked to allegations of religious conversion, the group said. They included an attack on a prayer meeting of more than 25 people in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma district.
Hate speech from office holders
A second report counted 83 hate speeches against the two communities by 57 speakers in at least 16 states over the same period. Thirty-three were made by people holding public office, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and four chief ministers, the group said. Modi’s speech in Kolkata on March 14, in which he spoke of “infiltrators” changing West Bengal’s demography, was among them.
The group said 37 of the speeches called for violence or urged Hindus to arm themselves. Only six led to a police case, and one to an arrest.
“Most hate speech in 2026 did not come from strangers in a crowd. It came from people who had done it before and knew nothing would happen to them,” the report said.
No response from the federal government to the findings had been reported by Thursday.
The group said its trackers count only incidents that were reported and documented. “Many hate crimes are never reported, and many that are reported are never followed up. The true numbers are higher,” it said. It called for the Supreme Court’s directions on hate crimes to be carried out, and for protection for people who document rights abuses.
