IAMC Weekly India Human Rights Monitor (October 3, 2026)
This Week at a Glance
This week, parts of the dome and first floor of Ujjain’s centuries-old Shahi Masjid were damaged when authorities demolished its minaret for a road-widening project. Police detained more than 700 people in Delhi protesting the nationwide voter-roll revision and demanding the Chief Election Commissioner’s resignation, as citizens petitioned the Supreme Court to halt the exercise. In Karnataka and Telangana, opposition parties flagged bulk applications seeking to strike Muslim voters off electoral rolls. The Delhi High Court again denied bail to Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam, while the Supreme Court quashed the preventive detention of a Muslim man accused in the 2024 Sambhal violence and fined the Uttar Pradesh government. Elsewhere, a mob attacked a 12-year-old Muslim boy and his family in Lucknow, and film students in Kolkata were stabbed after objecting to an RSS-affiliated event.
Top Stories
Ujjain’s historic Shahi Masjid damaged during demolition
Parts of the dome and first floor of the 14th-century Shahi Masjid in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, were damaged on October 1 when its minaret, being torn down to widen a road for a major Hindu religious festival, fell onto the mosque. The administration blamed faulty machinery, while Muslim residents, who had been removing the marked section themselves, accused officials of hasty action. The damage came days after police fired tear gas and baton-charged Muslim residents who had held a three-night vigil to protect the mosque, detaining more than 20 people.
Hundreds detained as citizens escalate challenge to voter-roll revision
On October 2, police detained more than 700 people in Delhi protesting against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, while a parallel protest was held in Mumbai. More than 2,000 academics, lawyers, journalists and activists petitioned the Chief Justice of India to halt the SIR nationwide and order an independent probe into the Election Commission’s conduct.
Bulk applications target Muslim voters for deletion in Karnataka and Telangana
More than 4,000 Form-7 applications, used to object to a person’s inclusion on the voter list, have been filed in Karnataka during the SIR, most of them seeking the removal of Muslim names. In Enkoor village in Bidar district, home to around 725 Muslim voters, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) alleged a systematic drive to delete Muslim electors. In Hyderabad, Telangana, the Congress party alleged that pre-printed forms were used to seek the deletion of around 30 members of a single Muslim family.
Delhi High Court denies bail again to prisoners of conscience Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam
The Delhi High Court rejected fresh bail pleas from prisoners of conscience Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam, who have been jailed without trial for more than six years under the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for protesting against a discriminatory citizenship law. The ruling comes months after the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found Khalid’s detention arbitrary and called for his immediate release.
Hate crimes and discrimination in India
This week, in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, a 12-year-old Muslim boy was attacked after refusing to chant “Jai Sri Ram,” a Hindu religious slogan widely used as a Hindu nationalist rallying cry, before a large crowd followed him home and pelted his family’s house and a nearby mosque with stones, injuring his uncle. In Kolkata, at least six students of the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute were injured in an alleged stabbing after they objected to a campus event organised by the Akhil Bharatiya Grahak Panchayat, an affiliate of the Hindu nationalist paramilitary Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), with around 150 students later trapped inside as a mob pelted stones outside. Meanwhile, Instagram restricted political cartoonist Satish Acharya’s account in India following a government legal request, days after he published cartoons criticising the Election Commission, while fellow cartoonist Manjul said one of his cartoons on the Commission was also blocked.
Resistance & Organizing
Human rights groups seek UN action on abuses against Muslims in Uttar Pradesh
REDRESS and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) submitted a joint complaint to the UN Human Rights Council documenting patterns of gross violations against Muslims in Uttar Pradesh, including extrajudicial police killings known locally as “encounters.” The complaint urges the Council to set up an independent fact-finding body and appoint a Special Rapporteur on India to monitor violations against religious minorities.
Supreme Court quashes NSA detention in Sambhal case, fines Uttar Pradesh government
The Supreme Court quashed the detention of a Muslim man under the National Security Act (NSA) in the 2024 Sambhal violence case, ruling that a confession made in police custody could not alone justify preventive detention. The court ordered the Uttar Pradesh government to pay ₹1 million (approximately $11,400) in costs for the illegal detention order.
IAMC in Action
- IAMC condemned the partial demolition of the 14th-century Shahi Masjid in Ujjain and the police crackdown on Muslim residents who gathered to protect it, calling on the Madhya Pradesh government to halt further demolition, order an independent inquiry into the police action, and drop cases against peaceful protesters. Read our statement here.
