At least 27 Muslims have been killed by state and non-state actors across India in 2026, making it the deadliest year for anti-Muslim killings since 2022, according to the South Asia Justice Campaign’s (SAJC) India Persecution Tracker (IPT).
The tracker’s third quarterly review, covering August to October, documented eight killings by state actors across six states. Three people were killed in police encounters, while five died in police custody or prison.
During the same period, at least eight Muslims were killed by cow vigilantes and other non-state actors across four states. West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh recorded three killings each. The tracker said 2026 had already recorded the highest number of such killings since its data collection began in January 2022, with two months remaining in the year.
The report also documented 146 incidents during the quarter, 103 of them in Uttar Pradesh. It raised concerns over police violence, alleged discriminatory enforcement and anti-Muslim rhetoric in the poll-bound state.
Uttar Pradesh records most incidents
According to the report, Uttar Pradesh Police shot more than 100 Muslim men during the reporting period, many in operations linked to cattle-related cases.
Official police figures released in October showed that 110 of the 316 people killed in police encounters in the state since 2017 were Muslims. This accounts for around 35 per cent of the total, while Muslims make up approximately 19 per cent of Uttar Pradesh’s population.
Between August and October, police also allegedly shot and injured at least 118 Muslim men in what are described as “half-encounters”. These incidents involve non-fatal shootings, often in the legs, before suspects are formally arrested. Uttar Pradesh accounted for 105 of the reported cases. Most of those targeted were accused in cattle-related cases, the tracker said.
An Associated Press investigation published last month found that nearly 93 per cent of the identified individuals among around 650 people shot by Uttar Pradesh Police in cow-smuggling cases since 2020 were Muslims.
The tracker also cited an August 13 Allahabad High Court order directing a federal inquiry into a police shooting. The court observed that all 23 police personnel involved had received rewards for their alleged “good work”.
Hate speech and attacks on minorities
The report documented dozens of assaults against Muslims in at least 10 states between August and October. Several incidents involved religious intimidation and pressure on victims to chant slogans such as “Jai Shri Ram”.
It also identified anti-Muslim remarks by chief ministers of four BJP-ruled states: Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Assam and Uttarakhand.
In Uttar Pradesh, the SAJC’s Election Watch documented at least 29 anti-Muslim speeches between August and October, including 13 by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. On October 7, Adityanath described the upcoming election as an “80 versus 20” contest, a remark widely interpreted as referring to the state’s religious demographics.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma also made remarks about Muslims during a by-election rally on October 1. Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami spoke against what he described as demographic change and referred to conversion, encroachment and “jihad” during a public address in August.
Christians were also targeted during the reporting period, particularly in West Bengal, according to the tracker.
Concerns over voter deletions and citizenship
The report raised concerns over the treatment of Bengali-speaking Muslims, many of whom have been labelled illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
By mid-October, the third phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, covering 18 states and Union territories, had resulted in more than 61 million names being removed from draft voter lists. Including earlier phases, the total number of deletions since the exercise began in Bihar in 2025 had exceeded 133 million.
The tracker alleged that bulk Form 7 objections seeking the removal of Muslim voters had been submitted in at least five states. Form 7 allows an individual voter to object to the inclusion of a name in the electoral roll.
In West Bengal, appeals tribunals had reportedly decided only 126,194 of the 3.83 million appeals by mid-September, leaving many affected voters awaiting decisions.
Concerns over citizenship and alleged illegal immigration also intensified. On September 13, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said the government was discussing a proposed nationwide National Register of Citizens (NRC) with its allies.
Separately, a committee established by the Union Home Ministry sought 15 years of religion-wise data from states on births, school enrolment, property transactions and religious structures. The tracker said the committee’s work was linked to concerns over illegal immigration and demographic change.
The report also highlighted evictions in Assam, where more than 1,100 families, most of them Bengali-speaking Muslims, were reportedly evicted from three districts in mid-October. An investigation by The New Humanitarian counted 20,387 families displaced in at least 33 eviction drives carried out under the Himanta Biswa Sarma government since 2021.
The SAJC said the findings pointed to continuing concerns over violence against religious minorities, the use of state power and the protection of constitutional rights in India.
