India’s Muslims fear growing backlash: NYT

In the wake of the Pahalgam attack, Indian authorities and right-wing Hindu groups have launched sweeping crackdowns that critics say are targeting Muslims nationwide, fueling fears that the tragedy is being used to justify a broader campaign of discrimination and collective punishment against the country’s largest minority.

This has been reported by Mujib Mashal and Hari Kumar for the New York Times. In their latest report, they write: Widespread detentions and demolitions of property targeting Muslims in India have provoked concerns that right-wing Hindu nationalists are exploiting last week’s terrorist attack in Kashmir to deepen a campaign of oppression against the country’s largest minority group.

Public anger has swelled after 26 people — all but one of them Hindu tourists — were killed by militants near the town of Pahalgam in the Indian-administered part of Kashmir, a Muslim-majority region. India has said that Pakistan had a supporting hand in the attack, an accusation that Pakistan denies. But officials and right-wing Hindu groups have intensified harassment of Muslims, which they have framed as a drive against illegal migrants.

In several states run by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, local officials have used the moment to hound what they call “illegal Bangladeshis” and Rohingya, the Muslim minority who have fled Myanmar. Such labels, including “Pakistani,” are often used to target Muslim migrants from other parts of India.

The killings of Muslims were reported in two states, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka, with media reports suggesting they were hate crimes.

Inside Kashmir, security forces have arrested hundreds as they seek the perpetrators of the April 22 attack, and they have blown up the homes of people they have accused of having terrorist affiliations. The sweeps, which has included the detention of 2,000 people according to one official, resemble the collective punishments that the authorities have previously carried out after attacks on security forces in Kashmir.

Kashmiris in other states have reported harassment and violence, with right-wing groups filming themselves assaulting Kashmiri roadside salesmen and threatening violence if Kashmiris do not leave.

but said they had happened without prior notice or due process.

Petitioners in the Gujarati city of Ahmedabad said that those detained had been subjected to “custodial violence, atrocities and humiliation,” despite police soon realizing that “more than 90 percent of those who are detained” were Indian citizens.