The South Asia Justice Campaign’s India Persecution Tracker has reported that at least 25 Muslims were killed in India between May and July 2026, including 15 deaths allegedly involving state actors and 10 in religiously motivated attacks attributed to Hindu extremist actors.
The report, covering the period from May 1 to July 31, said the figures bring the total number of Muslims killed in the first seven months of 2026 to 44. Of these, the tracker attributes 19 deaths to state actors and 25 to Hindutva-linked assailants.
According to the tracker, the figures indicate that 2026 could become the deadliest year for anti-Muslim hate crimes since the organisation began documenting such killings in 2022.
The report said the incidents documented were not exhaustive and represented only cases that were reported and could be verified.
State Violence and Detentions
The tracker alleged that state authorities continued to use arrests, detentions, demolitions and police encounters against Muslims, particularly in Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Kashmir and West Bengal.
It said at least 15 Muslims were killed by police and security personnel during the three-month period. The report cited figures released by the Uttar Pradesh government in May, which said that 289 people had been killed and 11,834 injured in 17,043 police operations since 2017.
In Kashmir, the tracker alleged that security forces detained more than 2,500 people within 48 hours of a militant attack in July and demolished the homes of two families.
The report also alleged that Muslims were disproportionately arrested during student protests in several states. In one demonstration in Kolkata, it said, 13 of the 14 people arrested were Muslims.
10 Muslims Killed in Alleged Hate Crimes
The tracker said Hindu extremist actors were responsible for the deaths of at least 10 Muslims in five states during the reporting period.
The victims allegedly included an 11-year-old girl and a 16-year-old boy.
According to the report, communal violence against Muslims was recorded in five states, with West Bengal witnessing some of the most serious incidents.
The tracker said attacks on mosques, Muslim-owned businesses and settlements followed the BJP’s first electoral victory in West Bengal. It alleged that at least two people were killed in these incidents, including one person who died while trying to protect a mosque.
West Bengal Sees New Measures Targeting Muslims
The report described the BJP government’s first months in West Bengal as particularly significant, alleging that measures targeting Bengali-speaking Muslims expanded through citizenship checks, voter-roll revisions and welfare policies.
It claimed that the government reported 4,800 deportations of alleged “infiltrators” during its first month and instructed police to hand detained people to border forces without producing them before a court.
The tracker also alleged that 77 Muslim communities were removed from the backward-classes reservation list, while funding for minority affairs and madrasas was reduced by 62%.
The report further claimed that cattle slaughter restrictions were introduced shortly before Eid al-Adha and that protesters were arrested under a new preventive-detention law.
Assam Pushbacks and Citizenship Concerns
In Assam, the report highlighted what it described as continuing “pushbacks” of Bengali-speaking people towards Bangladesh.
It cited the Assam government’s claim that 1,679 people had been sent back over two years. It also referred to Human Rights Watch documentation alleging that Indian forces had taken families, including children, through gaps in the border fence at night.
The tracker said UN Special Rapporteurs had expressed concern over political rhetoric surrounding alleged “infiltrators”.
According to the report, the UN experts warned that rhetoric such as “Detect, Delete and Deport” could wrongly portray Indian Muslim citizens as foreign nationals and could amount to incitement to discrimination under international law.
Demolitions and Religious Freedom
The report also alleged that the legal and administrative framework affecting Muslims had expanded during the quarter.
It said Assam and Madhya Pradesh enacted Uniform Civil Codes, which the tracker argued override aspects of Muslim personal law. It also cited a law making the “insult” of Vande Mataram punishable by up to three years in prison.
The tracker further reported that at least 23 Muslim religious structures were demolished in less than two months across six states.
Overall, it claimed that more than 1,000 Muslim homes, businesses and religious structures were demolished in at least 21 incidents across eight states during the quarter, taking the number of such demolitions in 2026 to more than 3,000.
International Concern Over India
The report said international bodies continued to raise concerns about India’s treatment of minorities, protests and civic freedoms.
It cited statements and communications from UN Special Rapporteurs, including concerns over voter-roll deletions, the treatment of protesters and the detention of human rights defenders.
The report also pointed to India’s declining position on international press freedom and civic-freedom assessments.
The South Asia Justice Campaign said the developments documented during the three months showed a broader pattern in which discrimination against Muslims was allegedly being reinforced through government policy, legislation, administrative action and political rhetoric.
“Through legislation, policy and official rhetoric, India’s highest public officials continued to condemn Muslims as a racialised outsider group,” the report said.
The organisation stressed that its tracker does not capture every incident and that its findings are based on cases it was able to report and verify.
