The month of March 2022 witnessed a series of atrocities against Muslims ranging from physical violence to verbal abuse. Given below, is a list of atrocities/hate crimes against Muslims which have plagued the month of March.
3 March: Hiba Sheik, an 18-year-old hijab-wearing Muslim student, who was at the forefront of the hijab row was booked by Karnataka police alongside six other Muslim students over allegations of harassment by ABVP members. The incident happened at Dayanand Pai-Satish Pai Government First Grade College in North Mangaluru. In a tweet, she questioned the authenticity of the FIR.
3 March 2022: Right-wing groups attacked the Hazrat Ladle Mashaikh Ansari Shareef dargah in Aland Taluk of Gulbarga district in Karnataka.
The groups claimed that there is a Hindu deity, in particular a shivalinga in the Dargah premises. Women and men were beaten up police officials and the groups in question indulged in vandalism.
4 March 2022- A few female Muslim students were harassed by Hindu youth, on Thursday, after they appeared for exams at Government First Grade College, Mangalore, wearing a dupatta. Although the principal of the college had allowed the students to take the exams in a dupatta without pinning it like a hijab, a group of Hindu youth, allegedly belonging to right-wing organizations, harassed the girls.
8 March 2022: In government college in Mugtahalli, Chickmaglur local panchayat member Madhu and his brother Manohar entered the premises without permission and forced the students to leave college if they refused to remove their hijabs. The incident took place in the presence of the college staff.
12 March 2022: After the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept a record-breaking victory in the state legislative assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh (UP), Hindu Yuva Vahini district president Ayush Tyagi openly threatened Muslims in Ghaziabad, saying that ‘either they (Muslims) should remove the loudspeakers in the mosques, or else the Hindu Yuva Vahini will enter the mosques and take down the loudspeakers.’
12 March 2022: Rezak Sarkar, the Imam of a mosque in Arambagh, West Bengal, was attacked by goons while returning home, in which he was badly injured. After the attack, he was admitted to the hospital. The villagers demanded action against the accused.
14 March 2022: A 50-year-old shrine located in Madhya Pradesh was allegedly vandalised and painted saffron by a group of unidentified goons.
The incident occurred at Narmadpuram Head Quarters of State Highway number 22. Police officials were quoted by the Indian Express said that the incident came to the fore at around 6 AM on Sunday when a few men realized that the entrance of the shrine was painted saffron and the doors were broken.
16 March 2022: After the Karnataka high court delivered the hijab verdict, a government school in Raichur, Karnataka, made female teachers and student take of their hijab and skull cap respectively.
18 March 2022: A Whatsapp group was formed during the Delhi pogrom called “Kattar Hindutva Ekta”. Members discussed ways to kill Muslims. One of the members Lokesh Solanki even boasted and discussed how he killed five Muslims and burnt their bodies.
20 March 2022: Adding to the growing Islamophobic and unrest in the country, especially since the release of the movie The Kashmir Files, a video of a man inciting violence against Muslims in the country has surfaced on social media.
21 March 2022: Shivamogga, the district in Karnataka which has witnessed anti-Muslim atrocities in the last few weeks, is dealing with another instance of Islamophobia. The organizing committee of the Kote Marikamba Jatra (a festival held in Shivamogga) was forced to prevent Muslims from setting up stalls for the festival.
22 March 2022: A 35-year-old driver of a pick-up van was mercilessly beaten up by cow vigilantes in Raal village over suspicion of ‘ferrying beef and smuggling cattle’ in his vehicle, Mathura.
22 March 2022: A Muslim man in Uttar Pradesh’s Noorpur village was lynched to death during an altercation with the villagers who attacked him and his brother in the Kaushambi district of the state.
23 March 2022: A ninth-class Muslim student alleged that he was beaten by his Hindu mates and some others after he refused to raise a religious slogan in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand.
23 March 2022: The Muslim community in Delhi alleged that the city police stopped them from offering their Friday prayers in 16 mosques. Muslims and Imams have alleged that the police suddenly stopped them and refused to offer an explanation or even show the worshippers a warrant.
25 March 2022: The Bagalkot Police has arrested a youth named ‘Siddharuda Shrikant’, who posted abusive posts against Hindus by creating an account named ‘Mushtaq Ali’ on Facebook. Srikkanth is also accused of threatening a BJP leader online.
26 March 2022: In another episode of Muslims being harassed in Karantaka, Hindutva goons in Kodagu district on Friday forced Muslim vendors to shut down fruit and juice stalls set up on the premises of the venue where a state-level agricultural programme was scheduled to take place.
26 March 2022: The number of incidents of hate spewed against Muslims, online and offline, has been on the rise in the last few months. Hindutva men have repeatedly targeted Muslim women online with anti-Muslim remarks, sexual slurs, and rape threats.
A youth from South West Delhi’s Najafgarh incited sexual violence and called for the murder of a Muslim student activist through his Instagram handle, @vipul_singh0077, which now stands deleted.“It is the right of our Hind.”
27 March 2022: Harisingh Gour Central University, a university in Madhya Pradesh’s Sagar district is probing into a video of a Muslim girl offering prayer inside a classroom. Hindu nationalist groups are demanding action from the administration against the hijab-clad student, making reference to the Karnataka hijab ban.
28 March 2022: The Sanyukt Hindu Sangharsh Samiti, on Tuesday, has threatened to launch massive agitation across the state if there is no immediate ban on the offering of namaz at public places across the Millennium City, Gurugram.
28 March 2022: Muslims in Tamil Nadu who have converted from other religions have lamented that they are not considered for reservation in government jobs by the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC).
30 March 2022: With right-wing groups calling for the boycott of ‘Halal’ meat, BJP national general secretary CT Ravi likened Halal food to ‘economic jihad’. For the past few days, there was a flurry of messages on social media appealing Hindus to shun Halal meat, especially after Ugadi, which is the Hindu New Year festival.
30 March 2022: The Neelamangala Ugadi fair in Bengaluru saw various workers of the Bajrang Dal flocking around Hindu vendors asking them not to buy meat from Muslim vendors. A protest has been printed in Kannada asking Hindus not to do any business with Muslim vendors during Ugadi.
31 March 2022: A chicken shop owner has been reportedly assaulted by right-wing goons in Bhadravathi city of Shivamogga District, Karnataka. The goons who are the regular customers of the shop have demanded non-halal meat. When the shop owner, Syed Ansar refused to sell non-halal meat, the goons started assaulting him and his cousin Tausif.
The list of hate-crimes for the month of January and February can be accessed below.
(Note: This is in no way an exhaustive list. This story is a part of Siasat.com’s monthly initiative to document atrocities against Muslims.)