The year 2018 witnessed the most number of hate crimes in a decade motivated by religious bias in India, reports Hate Crime Watch of FactChecker.in. As of December 26, there have been 93 attacks in this years. In most of these hate crimes minorities were victims. In 2018, 30 people were killed which is the most number of deaths since 2009. Throughout this year around 305 were injured in such attacks. The previous year had experienced 29 deaths, which is one less than this year’s death count, but the number of non-fatal injured this year was twice in comparison to the last year.

State-wise data

The report found out that Uttar Pradesh, which falls under the regiment of the Central government topped the list. Yogi Adityanath’s Uttar Pradesh accounted for 27 such attacks. Uttar Pradesh is trailed by Bihar which had witnessed ten attacks. The states at the first and second position had a huge difference of 17 attacks, making the entire nation question the security of an individual in Uttar Pradesh. Gujarat and Rajasthan which is governed by the BJP government have witnessed seven attacks each. Karnataka, then under the coalition government of Janata Dal (Secular) and the Congress registered seven such incidents. Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh had four deaths in such attacks whereas Jharkhand and Karnataka had three deaths.

Minorities accounted for the highest number of victims

In 2018, of the 81 incidents in which the religion of the victim was known, nearly 49 attacks (60%) involved Muslim victims, and 14% were Christians. Of all these incidents, a Sikh was the victim in one event. These statistics vindicate that minorities were the victims in 75% cases this year. In 20 attacks this year Hindus were the victims exhibited the report. Since 2009, Christians who account for 2% of the population were the victims in 17% attacks. Muslims which account for 14% of the population were victims in 66% attacks. Whereas, Hindu accounting for 80% of the population were victims in 16% incidents. In 11% of the cases (32), the religion of the victim was not reported.

As per the report, there have been 280 incidents since 2009, which resulted in 100 deaths and at least 692 injuries.

Religious bias-motivated hate crimes

In 2018, hate crimes steered by religious crimes accounted for 30 deaths. In this 60% or 18 victims were Muslims, 33% or 10 victims were Hindu and 7% or two victims were Christian. Since 2009, of 100 people killed in such incidents, 65 were Muslim, 27 were Hindu, and four were Christians, showed Factchecker’s database. Of 63 attacks in 2018 where the religion of the attackers was known, 45 attacks (71%) involved Hindus as alleged attackers and 17 attacks (27%) involved Muslims.
Since 2009, of 191 attacks in 156 involved Hindus as alleged attackers, and 33 attacks (17%) involved Muslims. The religion of perpetrators was not reported in 89 cases.

Communal Clashes Triggered 25% Hate Crime Incidents

Of every four incidents, one hate crime was triggered by religious bias this year, claimed the report. 15% of the cases (14) happened under the pretext of cow protection, and 17% of the cases (16) took place as a result of interfaith relationships. In 26% of the cases (24), the pretext of the attack was ambiguous as they involved incidents such as vandalism at a religious shrine and attacks with no clear provocation, whereas others mentioned reasons were revenge, and theft.

Since 2009, 27% of the attacks (75) were under the pretext of cow protection, 14% of the attacks (40) were under the pretext of interfaith relationships, and 9% of the attacks (26) were under the pretext of religious conversion.

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