More than 250 gatherings targeting Muslims were held across 17 Indian states over the first half of the current year, according to a report which highlights a rising pattern of anti-Muslim sentiment in India from 2014 onwards. The report, published by Hindutva Watch on Sunday, used real-time data to identify …
Read More »India temple accident: At least 35 killed after falling into underground stepwell
At least 35 people were killed and 16 were injured after the roof of a stepwell in a temple complex collapsed in central India, a local government official said on Friday (March 31). The incident occurred in the central Indian city of Indore after a concrete slab covering the roof …
Read More »India: Muslims see wave of attacks, hate speech on Hindu festival
Right-wing Hindu groups hold processions in Muslim neighbourhoods and make hate speeches during Ram Navmi celebrations in several states. Muslims in several Indian states are on edge after mobs came out in processions, making hate speeches and attacking their properties during the Hindu festival of Ram Navmi. Most of the …
Read More »India’s cow dung fight marks end of Diwali festivities
Joyful crowds pelted each other with fistfuls of cow manure this weekend as part of one village’s local ritual to mark the end of Diwali, India’s most important Hindu festival. Similar to Spain’s “La Tomatina” — the eccentric tomato-hurling celebration of the local fruit — residents of Gumatapura instead fling …
Read More »Two Hindu men killed in fresh Bangladesh religious violence
Two Hindu men have been killed in fresh religious violence in Bangladesh, police officials said on Saturday, taking the death toll to six from recent unrest in the Muslim-majority country. Protests began on Wednesday after footage emerged of a Quran being placed on the knee of a Hindu god during …
Read More »Pakistan deploys paramilitary forces after Hindu temple was attacked
Pakistan deployed paramilitary forces in a central town on Thursday to check communal unrest after a group ransacked and set fire to a Hindu temple. Ahmad Nawaz, a spokesperson for the Rahimyar Khan district police, told Reuters that the people attacked the temple in the town of Bhong after reports …
Read More »Massive ‘Chariot Festival’ Begins in India’s Puri Amid Curfews, PM Modi Greets on Auspicious Day
A heavy security presence has been deployed to the city of Puri in India’s Odisha state – as the gods from the Shree Jagannath Temple board their chariots to visit other temples. This festival is called the “Rath Yatra” and it holds major religious significance for the Hindus as it …
Read More »Twitter faces new headache in India after police complaint over controversial map
A Hindu hardline group has filed a complaint with police against Twitter’s country head after politically sensitive regions were depicted outside a map of India on its website, kickstarting an investigation in a fresh headache for the U.S. tech firm. A map on Twitter’s careers page showed the Jammu and …
Read More »Two Muslim students face ‘bogus’ charges of inciting Delhi riots
Lawyers say pair were peacefully protesting against Indian citizenship act Delhi police have been accused of slapping two Muslim student activists with “bogus” charges of conspiring to incite the recent riots, the worst religious violence in India’s capital for decades, and in which the police were accused of being complicit. …
Read More »India summons Iran envoy over a tweet against anti-Muslim violence
India has summoned the Iranian ambassador to New Delhi to protest a tweet by Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in condemnation of the recent wave of deadly violence against Muslims in India. Indian media cited unnamed official sources as saying that Ambassador Ali Chegini had been summoned on Tuesday …
Read More »Hundreds arrested in India during days of protests over citizenship law
More than 1,500 protesters have been arrested across India in the past 10 days, officials said, as police try to quell sometimes violent demonstrations against a citizenship law that critics say undermines the country’s secular constitution. Additionally, some 4,000 people have been detained and then released, the officials said. Those …
Read More »India: Hindu worshippers drown after boat capsizes in Bhopal lake.
At least 12 people have drowned in a lake after the boat they were traveling in capsized during a religious ritual in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. The incident took place on Friday at approximately 4:30 am local time (23:00 GMT on Thursday) when a boat carrying about …
Read More »2 Million in India’s Assam State Face Prospect of Becoming Stateless.
Almost 2 million people in northeast India were left facing statelessness on Saturday after the state of Assam published a citizenship list aimed at weeding out “foreign infiltrators”, in a process the central government wants to replicate nationwide. A total of 31.1 million people were included in a final National …
Read More »Indian opposition leaders refused entry to Kashmir.
A group of Indian opposition party leaders who had traveled from New Delhi to Indian-controlled Kashmir on Saturday was refused entry into the regional capital on Saturday. The delegation of opposition leaders, led by the Indian National Congress’ Rahul Gandhi, said they were flying to the territory’s capital to “assess …
Read More »Two killed in first Kashmir gun battle since lockdown began.
Clash in Baramulla the first to be reported by officials since India revoked the region’s autonomy and imposed a curfew. Two people, including a police official and a rebel, have been killed in a gun battle in Indian-administered Kashmir, police said. The clash in Baramulla district’s Ganie-Hamam area on Wednesday …
Read More »Kashmir in panic after India orders tourists to leave.
Thousands of Indian students and visitors were fleeing Indian-controlled Kashmir on Saturday after the government ordered tourists and Hindu pilgrims visiting a Himalayan cave shrine “to curtail their stay” in the disputed territory, citing security concerns. Hundreds of Indian and foreign visitors, including some Hindu pilgrims, congregated outside the main …
Read More »UAE grants a first birth certificate for interfaith baby.
The UAE has issued a birth certificate for a child born to a Muslim mother and a Hindu father, despite its laws against interfaith marriage. Under the country’s legislation, a Muslim woman cannot marry a non-Muslim man. Kiran Babu and Sanam Saboo Siddique married in 2016 in south India, before …
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