Muslim students forced to remove hijab to sit for exams in Gujarat

At a school in far-right BJP-ruled Gujarat’s Bharuch, Muslim girls were forced to remove their hijabs during an exam. 

Last month, a government-run school in Rajasthan’s Pipar turned away Muslim students wearing the hijab, threatening to drop the students’ grades if they continued to wear the hijab on school premises. In recent years, several Muslim students have been denied entry into schools and colleges across India for wearing the hijab. 

Far-right BJP lawmaker calls for turning Qutub Minar into a temple

While addressing a religious event in Jaipur, Rajasthan, BJP lawmaker Balmukund Acharya called on Hindus to take over the historic Qutub Minar, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and turn it into a temple. 

Balmukund had previously objected to the wearing of hijab in schools and students and made students chant the Hindu supremacist warcry “Jai Sri Ram” during school event.

Police arrest students protesting against anti-Muslim citizenship law

Police in far-right BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh state have arrested student activists Bhanu Kumar and Alok Ambedkar for organizing a protest against the anti-Muslim Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). 

Soon after India’s Hindu supremacist government announced rules to implement the (CAA), student organizations across the country staged demonstrations against the discriminatory law, which is aimed at stripping Muslims of their citizenship en masse. 

Police open fire at alleged “cattle smuggler,” victim sustains bullet wound

In BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar, police fired gunshots at an alleged “cattle smuggler,” who sustained a bullet injury in his leg. 

The incident is the latest in an ongoing trend of violent attacks against predominantly Muslim cattle traders by law enforcement. Over the last few months, multiple such injuries have occurred due to police firing.