Mosque imam shot dead in Uttar Pradesh

The imam of a mosque in Uttar Pradesh’s Moradabad, Maulana Akram, was shot dead. Unidentified individuals called him outside his house at 4 a.m. in the morning and shot him in the chest.

The incident is the latest in a series of murders of Muslim clerics over the past few months. Last week, a 70-year-old Muslim cleric, Maulana Mohammad Farooque, was beaten to death by a Hindu man, Chandramani Tiwari, over a land dispute in Uttar Pradesh’s Pratapgarh.

Hindu militants attack Christians over alleged forced religious conversion

In Pune, Maharashtra, members of the Hindu militant group Bajrang Dal assaulted three Christians over suspicions of them forcibly converting Hindus to Christianity.

Attacks on Christians have become common under several Indian states’ draconian anti-conversion laws, which criminalize conversion away from Hinduism. D.C.-based human rights group International Christian Concern has named India among the top 10 countries persecuting Christians in its 2023 Persecutors of the Year Report. 

Hindu residents put up posters urging houses not to be sold to non-Hindus

Hindu residents of a neighborhood in Jaipur, Rajasthan put up posters outside their homes saying houses should not be sold to “non-Hindus.” Recently, in Gujarat’s Vadodara, Hindu residents of a housing complex gathered to protest after a flat was rented to a Muslim family.

Over the past year, Hindu extremist leaders have demanded boycotts against Muslims and urged Hindus not to rent homes and shops to the minority group.