Assam Elections 2026: The arithmetic of power and the psychology of victory as BJP-led NDA appears set for a comfortable hat-trick

Dr. Prosenjit Nath

21 March, 2026

Assam Elections 2026: The arithmetic of power and the psychology of victory as BJP-led NDA appears set for a comfortable hat-trick

Assam goes to the polls on April 9, and conventionally, a journalist’s task is to observe, interpret, and analyse, not to predict. Electoral democracy, after all, is famously unpredictable. Yet, there are moments when patterns become so visible, when structural shifts align so clearly with political momentum, that refraining from a forecast feels like an evasion rather than restraint. This is one such moment. Based on more than two decades of closely following Assam’s politics and extensive ground observations over the past few months, the conclusion is difficult to avoid: when results are declared on May 4, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), led by the Bharatiya Janata Party, is poised to return to power with a comfortable majority.

This is not clairvoyance. It is the outcome of examining a confluence of factors structural, organisational, psychological, and political that together tilt the balance decisively in favour of the ruling alliance.

A Fragmented Battlefield: Alliances and Contradictions

At the outset, the electoral map presents a familiar yet deeply fractured contest. The NDA comprises the BJP, Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), and Bodoland People’s Front (BPF), collectively contesting nearly all of Assam’s 126 seats. The BJP itself fields candidates in the lion’s share, underscoring its dominance within the alliance.

Himanta Biswa Sarma with AGP chief Atul Bora and BPF chief Hagrama Mohilary

Yet beneath this apparent cohesion lies a story of transactional politics. The BJP’s relationship with the BPF and its rival, the United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL), illustrates the fluidity of alliances in Assam. From backing the BPF in 2016 to supporting the UPPL in the 2020 Bodoland Territorial Council elections, and then returning to the BPF after its resurgence in 2025, the BJP has demonstrated a pragmatic, almost clinical approach to coalition-building.

On the opposing side stands a Congress-led alliance featuring the Indian National Congress, the Raijor Dal (RD), the Asom Jatiya Parishad (AJP), and several Left and regional outfits. On paper, this coalition appears broad-based. In practice, it is an untested amalgamation with weak organisational coherence and uncertain vote transferability.

Crucially, the Congress has chosen not to ally with the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), a decision that may prove decisive. In 2021, their alliance delivered a combined 45 seats. Today, their separation risks splitting a consolidated minority vote a development that structurally benefits the NDA.

Delimitation: Redrawing the Political Geometry

The most consequential shift in Assam’s electoral landscape is the 2023 delimitation exercise. Constituencies have been redrawn, new seats created, and demographic balances recalibrated. While such exercises are ostensibly administrative, their political consequences are profound.

The number of constituencies where Muslim voters can decisively influence outcomes has dropped significantly from around 35 to approximately 24. Given that Muslim voters have historically consolidated behind the Congress and AIUDF, this contraction directly weakens the opposition’s electoral efficiency.

Assam’s Muslim population, estimated to exceed 40 percent today, remains a critical voting bloc. However, its geographic concentration now translates into diminishing returns in terms of seats. The Congress, which secured nearly 30 percent of the vote in 2021 but only 29 seats, faces the prospect of an even worse vote-to-seat conversion ratio in 2026.

Without an alliance between the Congress and AIUDF, this vote base is further fragmented. Multi-cornered contests in minority-dominated constituencies introduce unpredictability but not necessarily an opportunity for the opposition. Instead, they create openings for the NDA to either win marginally or benefit indirectly from divided adversaries.

Leadership and Governance: The Sarma Factor

If delimitation provides the structural foundation for the NDA’s advantage, leadership supplies its emotional and political energy. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has emerged as one of the most formidable political figures in contemporary India.

Sarma’s appeal transcends conventional party lines. His governance model, marked by visible infrastructure development, aggressive welfare delivery, and an assertive administrative style, has resonated with a broad cross-section of voters. Roads, bridges, healthcare facilities, and digitised service delivery have created a perception of efficiency and progress.

Equally important is Sarma’s political communication. Through extensive outreach campaigns such as the Aashirvad Yatra, he has cultivated a direct connection with voters. These are not merely political rallies; they are carefully choreographed demonstrations of mass appeal that reinforce his image as a leader who delivers.

In contrast, the Congress leadership in Assam, led by Gaurav Gogoi, struggles to project a comparable narrative. Organisational weaknesses at the booth level further compound this disadvantage. Elections in India are increasingly won not just through messaging but through meticulous ground-level mobilisation a domain where the BJP and its ideological ecosystem, including the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), maintain a decisive edge.

Polarisation and Identity: The Enduring Faultline

No analysis of Assam’s politics is complete without addressing the issue of illegal immigration from Bangladesh. It remains one of the most emotionally charged and politically potent issues in the state.

The BJP has consistently leveraged this concern to consolidate indigenous voters. Sarma’s rhetoric around demographic change and cultural preservation taps into deeply held anxieties. While critics describe this as polarisation, its electoral effectiveness is undeniable.

In previous elections, the BJP found a convenient adversary in AIUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal, whose image was used to symbolise the threat of demographic imbalance. With the AIUDF no longer allied with the Congress and its influence diminished, the BJP has recalibrated its narrative.

Figures like Rakibul Hussain have been positioned as new focal points of political attack, particularly after internal dissent within the Congress exposed factional tensions. The BJP has effectively weaponised these divisions, portraying the Congress as a party unable to reconcile competing interests.

Ironically, Congress often amplifies this narrative through its own missteps. The presence of controversial figures during key campaign moments and public disagreements over candidate selection provide the BJP with ready-made talking points.

The Optics of Defection: Perception as Reality

Elections are as much about perception as they are about numbers. In this regard, recent defections from the Congress to the BJP have had an outsized impact.

Leaders such as Bhupen Kumar Borah and Pradyut Bordoloi may not individually alter electoral arithmetic. Yet their departure reinforces a narrative of instability within the Congress.

The optics have been particularly damaging. Public attempts by Congress leaders to persuade defectors to stay, often after decisions had already been finalised, project an image of desperation. In contrast, the BJP appears confident, even dominant, further strengthening its psychological advantage.

Sarma has skilfully deepened this perception by claiming to have insider influence within the Congress, suggesting that he can anticipate or even orchestrate defections. Whether exaggerated or not, such claims sow distrust within opposition ranks and erode voter confidence.

An Unsteady Opposition: Arithmetic Without Chemistry

The Congress-led alliance faces a fundamental problem: it exists more convincingly on paper than on the ground. While it brings together multiple parties, their combined strength remains limited.

The RD and AJP, led by figures like Akhil Gogoi and Lurinjyoti Gogoi, respectively, have pockets of influence but lack statewide organisational depth. Many of the constituencies they are contesting are either newly delimited or structurally unfavourable. In the current house, the two parties have a grand total of one seat, as only Akhil Gogoi is an MLA. He is expected to retain his Sivasagar seat despite anti-incumbency due to his non-stop drama, but Lurin’s win in the election remains a doubt.

The overhyped 3G alliance: Gaurav Gogoi, Akhil Gogoi and Lurinjyoti Gogoi

Even where arithmetic suggests competitiveness, the absence of proven vote transferability undermines the alliance’s prospects. Elections require not just shared objectives but seamless coordination at the grassroots, a capability the alliance has yet to demonstrate.

There is hope among sections of voters that a consolidation of Ahom support behind leaders like Gaurav Gogoi, Akhil Gogoi, and Lurinjyoti Gogoi could challenge the BJP in upper Assam. However, delimitation has diluted the electoral impact of such community-based swings, further reducing the opposition’s leverage.

Emotion vs Electoral Behaviour: The Zubeen Factor

The death of cultural icon Zubeen Garg has deeply affected Assam’s public consciousness. Few figures have commanded such widespread affection across communities.

Yet history suggests that emotional issues do not always translate into electoral outcomes. The protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act in 2019–20 were intense and widespread, yet they did not prevent the BJP from returning to power in 2021.

Zubeen Garg’s legacy, like the anti-CAA sentiment, reflects cultural and emotional currents that shape public discourse. But voting behaviour often aligns more closely with considerations of governance, identity, and political momentum.

The BJP’s Hidden Vulnerability

Despite its many advantages, the BJP is not without weaknesses. One notable concern is its increasing reliance on “imported” candidates leaders drawn from the Congress, AGP, and other parties.

Out of its declared candidates, a significant proportion are newcomers. This has created murmurs of discontent among long-time party workers who feel sidelined. Internal dissent, if not managed effectively, could lead to localised disruptions.

However, the BJP’s track record suggests a high degree of organisational discipline. Under leaders like Sarma and Sarbananda Sonowal, the party has consistently managed internal contradictions without allowing them to escalate into electoral liabilities.

Conclusion: A Convergence of Advantage

In the final analysis, the NDA’s expected victory in Assam is not the result of a single factor but of a convergence of advantages. Delimitation has altered the electoral map in its favour. The opposition remains fragmented and organisationally weak. Leadership, governance, and political communication provide the BJP with a compelling narrative. Polarisation continues to shape voter behaviour. And the psychological momentum rests firmly with the ruling alliance.

Elections, of course, can still surprise. Local factors, candidate-specific dynamics, and last-minute shifts in voter sentiment always carry the potential to disrupt forecasts. But barring an unforeseen upheaval, the trajectory appears clear.

When Assam’s voters deliver their verdict on May 4, it is likely to reaffirm not just a government but a political order, one defined by the BJP’s ability to combine structural advantage with strategic execution.

Congress attacks Modi govt after X crackdown on trolls sponsored by opposition parties: Read how anti-India propaganda was being spread

Rukma Rathore

20 March, 2026

Congress attacks Modi govt after X crackdown on trolls sponsored by opposition parties: Read how anti-India propaganda was being spread

On 18th March (Wednesday), the central government invoked section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 and certain social media accounts which seem to be affiliated with the opposition ecosystem were withheld in India. The section gives the authority to restrict internet content on grounds such as public order, national security and sovereignty.

Shortly after the development, the Indian National Congress initiated a campaign to charge the government with curtailing freedom of expression. A press conference was held on the issue by Supriya Srinate, the chief of the party’s social media and digital platforms department, in New Delhi.

She referred to the move as a rising culture of censorship and accused the centre of smothering dissent, strengthening its control on digital discourse and attacking the persons who hold unfavourable views of its policies. She alleged that the Modi government has engaged in a pattern of silencing independent dissenting voices across all online platforms.

Shrinate contended that such measures essentially give bureaucrats power over decisions regarding open accessibility to information. “This is not merely about shaping narratives; it is an encroachment on the very spirit of free expression,” she added. She further purported that the government was expanding its role into the world of social media after interfering with sections of mainstream media.

“Many of those affected are not aligned with the Congress. Some have even pointed fingers at us for our decisions, but we raise our voice in their support. We have learned from Rahul Gandhi to stand by anyone who encounters injustice, regardless of whether they have been against us and they are not an official part of our ecosystem, contrary to the assertions made by the Bharatiya Janata Party and its trolls,” the Congresswoman stated.

She then announced, “Blocking accounts will not block questions.” She also complained that the matter was a part of a broader issue, blaming the government for diverting emphasis from growing legislative and economic challenges alongside foreign policy flaws.

Shirante even uploaded a video with similar arguments and tweeted in support of the banned accounts, labelling the decision as “unacceptable” and Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a “coward.”

Interestingly, the grand old party has a long history of crushing disagreement and has frequently violated the freedom of speech. Nevertheless, it has rallied behind these people not out of genuine concern for the lofty ideals articulated in formal statements, but because they peddle the opposition’s narrative. Of course, this cannot be the only reason for the move against them, as there appears to be much more to their online activities than meets the eye.

The knack for distributing misleading information and propaganda

Nehr_who, with 242.3 K followers, is one of the popular accounts from the Islamo-liberal cabal that has been restricted by the government. It has repeatedly not only spread false news but also exhibited racism and cast aspersions on the Indian Army. He even condemned the judiciary for its refusal to offer protection to the infamous gym owner “Mohammad” Deepak Kumar, who had mocked the victims of the Pahalgam terror attack, remarking, “Only in India a hero is treated as a villain.”

He shared a speech from Prime Minister Keir Starmer, which celebrated the diversity present in the United Kingdom, to declare that “this is actually the opposite in India,” leaving no chance to disparage the nation, even through falsehoods. The account has been at the forefront of circulating manufactured stories about “minorities under threat” while either sanitising the incidents of assaults on Hindus or poking fun at their massacre.

In 2024, he cited the Hinduphobia tracker of OpIndia to suggest that Hindus are more secure in Kashmir than in Uttar Pradesh to showcase his shockingly derogatory and insensitive viewpoint about their in the valley. He is clearly aware of the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits due to jihadis but chose to deride their pain and anguish.

The United States Ambassador to India, Sergio Gor and the Commander of the United States Indo-Pacific Command, Samuel J Paparo went to the headquarters of India’s Western Army Command in Chandigarh this month. The talks centred on serious security matters along the western theatre, which is critical owing to military stalemates and hostilities with Pakistan.

However, the meeting was used to insinuate that PM Modi was compromised, an allegation often levelled by the Congress party and in turn raising questions on the integrity of the defence forces.

Nehr_who instigated a racist attack on the people of Bihar for their voting choices and ridiculed, “Enjoy the migration in toilets for another 5 years,” to demean the hardworking labour class merely because they refused to elect his preferred parties.

“Lakhs of migrants from UP and Bihar suffer horribly just to visit their hometown during festivals. Some of them even die,” he conveyed similarly in 2024, hitting out at them for backing the saffron party and charging that its government introduced Vande Bharat for the affluent. “You reap what you sow,” he added gleefully. The man has continuously downgraded the state and its residents over hygiene and other things.

He also invoked Osho to perpetrate xenophobic attacks against the people of Gujarat and Bihar, conveniently ignoring that these states were under the control of the parties he endorsed.

A woman reported that she voted for the Samajwadi Party but ended up with a BJP slip instead in Lakhimpur Kheri of Uttar Pradesh. “I had an infant baby with me during the time of voting because of which I pressed the wrong button, and I have no problems with the EVMs,” she later clarified. However, her bogus statement was leveraged to denounce the Election Commission of India by him.

The Chief Minister of Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma, has enforced rigorous measures to stop illegal immigration from Bangladesh in the region. However, Nehr_who, not only sought to inject a communal perspective into his anti-intruder statement by crying “apartheid,” but also demanded action against him.

He and Mohammed Zubair of Alt News even tried to mark a target on journalist Nisha Pal for posing questions related to the Pahalgam terror incident, Operation Sindoor and the Israel–Hamas war directed at some Muslim children.

He even uploaded a video with a supposed Pakistani man celebrating the victory of the Indian cricket team, declaring the Islamic Republic to be a superior country compared to India, while disregarding all its massive transgressions including terrorism against his own land.

Moreover, the person which has “no ties” to the Congress seethed, “This is how you speak when you learn history from a movie and not from an actual book,” in response to a comment expressing that Dhurandhar 2 made them understand why the party should never regain power.

Disguised anti-India propaganda framed as disapproval against Modi government

Dr. Nimo Yadav 2.0, another prominent account that has been barred in India, went so far as to associate two union ministers with anti-national activities. He stated, “Is it true that N Sitharaman’s office and Rajeev Chandrashekhar were following a person on Twitter who was training terrorists in India,” and called for the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to investigate the leaders.

Meanwhile, the parties that these elements support have been propping up mafias and gangsters for vote bank as they overstep all boundaries of human decency to push their agenda. He even made a joke about the appearance of the Indian Army officials and mentioned, “This is what happens when you ban eggs in mid-day meals,” illustrating the respect he has for the men in uniform who have been exemplary on the battlefield and otherwise while tackling enemies like Pakistan and China.

He derived amusement from the arrest of Nikhil Gupta, who was alleged to be involved in a unsuccesful assassination scheme against Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, wishing his story to be featured in Dhurandhar 2 alongside R Madhavan who plays National Security Advisor of India in the movie. This was his pitiful effort to make a spectacle of Indian intelligence agencies.

Dr. Nimo Yadav 2.0, in another post, asserted that “things are not looking good for India” because “Russia offered crude oil to Pakistan at a discounted price,” which he characterised as a substantial failure for the government. On the other hand, India has been acquiring oil from Russia at considerable discounts, particularly in 2022, despite the threats and tariffs from the United States.

He understands that Russia’s offer to Pakistan, much like India’s closeness with Israel, does not obstruct the ties between the two countries, yet he did not let that to distract from his propaganda.

He was among those who targeted wrestler Bajrang Punia, denouncing him as a bigot and a BJP lackey for his endorsement of Bajrang Dal on social media. He was forced to retract his post and was asked to apologise for his “audacity” a directive for him to yield to their conditions to receive their support for the agitation at Jantar Mantar. Others were even instructed not to participate in trending his hashtag.

Different accounts, same objectionable conduct

Manish RJ, whose account has experienced similar constraints in India, had stated that Bihari voters sold their souls for 10,000 because they supported the BJP. This democratic exercise is only acknowledged by this cabal when it leads to the triumph of their chosen parties.

He, like the others, was unable to restrain himself from disseminating false information and wrote “fatherland” in reference to Israel, falsely attributing this to PM Modi, who had made the remark regarding Indian Jews, indicating that they view the West Asian country in that light while considering India as their motherland.

The RJ even dragged the mother of the victim into the horrific rape and murder case that occurred at Kolkata’s Medical College and Hospital in his petty politics, charging that her pleas for justice were motivated by her desire to contest elections on a BJP ticket. He unabashedly slammed the grieving woman rather than demanding accountability from the ruling Trinamool Congress government.

He has continually been retweeting posts that make fun of any detrimental effects on Indians caused by the geopolitical crises.

“Activist and social worker” Sandeep Singh, another name on the list, has been openly batting for Congress, particularly its Haryana unit, through multiple posts, contradicting Shrinate’s claim that these accounts do not endorse her party.

Furthermore, he also desires the prohibition of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in India, as mentioned in the recent controversial report by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) in the name of freedom of religion and prevent discrimination. The report also prescribed targeted sanctions against the Research and Analysis Wing.

Union Minister Kishan Reddy categorically reprehended Rahul Gandhi and his party for succumbing to the unwarranted interference of the United States, which he noted jeopardised Indian interests and termed this behaviour as “anti-national.”

Another withheld account in India, in its blind hatred, referenced Dhurandhar, a term that celebrates the unsung heroes of India in the film, to highlight an illegal currency note printing scam in Gujarat, thereby belittling the sacrifice of those warriors.

Dr Ranjan, whose account encountered the same outcome, posted a video from a program to inaccurately claim that the Indian media, influenced by the Modi government, is obscuring crises and disasters from the citizens. Nevertheless, the media is persistently covering this significant issue and India has effectively secured crude oil from the narrow passage after Iran allowed vessels to pass through it. The clear objective seems to be to create fear among the people and provoke resentment against the government, without considering the repercussions for the country.

The statement made by Foreign Minister Dr S Jaishankar, indicating that there was “no blanket arrangement” with Iran and “every ship movement is an individual happening,” was presented as if the centre had failed to secure any agreement with the Iranian regime, leaving the country to endure hardships. However, discussions took place and oil-laden vessels successfully navigated the strait, docking at Indian ports despite the extensive propaganda and contrary assertions.

He also launched an attack on Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath after he criticised casteism while endorsing the caste system, alluding to the “varna vyavastha,” which was completely founded on social function and transformed with shifts in occupation. Ranjan, however, tried to manipulate CM Yogi’s appeal with the intention of fostering a caste divide in society, claiming that he committed the “gravest sin” by defending the caste system.

Some individuals even secured their tweets following the incident, raising many eyebrows.

A number of such accounts have been banned due to their propensity to engage in the spread of misinformation, half-truths and unfounded allegations. Moreover, if they are not guilty of such actions and the government has committed any form of “injustice” against them, they can always turn to the judiciary for remedy. However, they seem to be more interested in crying victim.

Moreover, these individuals were delighted when the account of Hindu activist Vijay Patel was suspended, and Malabar Gold wanted to imprison him for his criticism of their hiring of Pakistani influencers who berated Operation Sindoor. They take pleasure in the “censorship” as long as it unfairly targets their opponents. The hypocrisy and double standards are indeed astonishing.

Conclusion

In April 2024, just before the Lok Sabha elections, Amit Shah rebuked Congress for using his edited video that alleged that reservations would end if the BJP was elected to power. This video was broadly circulated as authentic by the Congress-led I.N.D.I.A. Alliance and their entire network. Thus, the propagation of disinformation with harmful intent cannot be dismissed lightly. Likewise, it is not surprising that the largest opposition party in the country, which has employed such tactics, is upset following action against these accounts.

Jihadistan 2026: Pakistan wins top spot in the Global Terrorism Index, worse than Burkina Faso

Divyansh Tiwari

20 March, 2026

Jihadistan 2026: Pakistan wins top spot in the Global Terrorism Index, worse than Burkina Faso

On March 20, the Institute for Economics and Peace released its Global Terrorism Index 2026, and the results were devastating, Pakistan is now officially the most terrorism-affected country in the world. 8.574 is the score. 1,139 people died. 1,045 incidents. 1,595 injuries. After two years at the top, Burkina Faso was overthrown by Pakistan, which now holds the top spot for the first time in the Index’s history.

The study, which is 97 pages long, is brutally plain. While global terrorist deaths plummeted 28% to 5,582 and attacks fell 22% to 2,944, with 81 nations improving, Pakistan went the opposite direction. This isn’t a coincidence. It is the result of extreme Islamist ideology, groups that the state once nurtured, and Afghan spillover.

How the Index is actually calculated?

The GTI isn’t just a body count contest. The number of terrorist incidents, fatalities, injuries, and hostages abducted are the four pillars of this weighted composite score. To account for the long term impact of trauma, the Index uses a five year weighted lag, current attacks hurt more, but older ones still lower the score. No single bloody year can fake a pattern according to the method (explained in Appendix B). With six times as many events as in 2020 and the biggest death toll since 2013, Pakistan’s 2025 spike was more than sufficient to take the top rank.

Pakistan: Host, sponsor and the victim of a disease it nurtures itself

The report doesn’t hold back. Pakistan saw the highest number of terrorist killings since 2013. TTP alone was responsible for 595 attacks and 637 fatalities, a 13% increase from the year before. The group, a Deobandi Islamist organisation founded in 2007, has close operational and theological ties to al-Qaeda. The UN Security Council observes that the TTP provides safe havens along the Afghan-Pakistan border while taking ideological guidance from al-Qaeda. There is a pattern when you include the BLA’s dramatic train hijacking that resulted in 442 hostages. These groups have been bolstered by cross-border militancy from Afghanistan, where the Taliban regained control in 2021. The Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan and strained relations with its neighbours are directly linked in the report to Pakistan’s rise. These tensions evolved into an open conflict by February 2026, when Pakistan attacked Kabul and Kandahar with air strikes. To put it briefly, the jihad that Pakistan once supported as a tactical advantage has returned home.

Nonetheless, Islamabad insists on being the victim. There is a lot of irony. The Islamic State, JNIM (an al-Qaeda branch), TTP, and al-Shabaab are the four groups responsible for 70% of terrorist deaths worldwide, according to IEP data, yet Pakistan’s narrative is still narrowly centred.

Radical Islam as the common denominator

The pattern is obvious when you look at the top perpetrators. Al-Shabaab, JNIM (Jamaat Nusrat Al-Islam wal Muslimeen), and TTP are all based on radical or Salafi-jihadist beliefs that have their roots in al-Qaeda’s worldwide network. The same ideological void is exploited by Islamic State affiliates in the area. In Africa, the report frequently emphasises how terrorist groups profit from rhetoric about human rights abuse by state security forces, but in South Asia, the cause is evident: a poisonous combination of radical preaching, porous borders, and governmental tolerance.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas continue to serve as launchpads. The TTP’s increasing attacks for the fourth year in a row are a result of decades of ideological sowing, not an accident.

India: rising above regional chaos

India, on the other hand, came in at number 13 with a score of 6.428. Only 2% of all terrorist deaths worldwide occurred in the nation having approx 17.5% of world population, and deaths plummeted. India maintained a multi-year trend of diminishing terror influence. Border fortifications, intelligence sharing, and strong counterterrorism frameworks have produced outcomes.

According to the report’s distribution chart, 70% of deaths occur in Pakistan, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, and Niger. India hardly makes an impression. The tale of South Asia is unique to Pakistan, while sub Saharan Africa continues to be the new epicenter (more than half of all deaths worldwide). In the midst of Islamist terror in the subcontinent, India’s calm progress stands out like a lighthouse.

Pakistan favourite accusation: ‘India did it’

This is where the story takes a darkly humorous turn. Despite the fact that the IEP report makes no mention of Indian support, Pakistani officials have spent years and will continue to blame New Delhi for every explosion on their turf. Following a court explosion in Islamabad in November 2025, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Defence Minister Khawaja Asif made unfounded accusations against ‘Indian proxies.’

No Indian roles are mentioned. Rather, it details Afghan spillover, TTP and BLA attacks, and Pakistan’s own shortcomings in border management. While Islamabad yells about Indian proxies, the data subtly indicates that terrorist organisations were fostered in Pakistan and provided sanctuary in Afghanistan. Why doesn’t the most reputable terrorism index in the world take notice if India is really the puppet master?

Conclusion

Pakistan’s top position is not a badge of glory. It serves as a caution. The region suffers when cross-border fighting escalates into open warfare, when BLA seizes trains, and when TTP death tolls reach levels not seen since 2011. In contrast, India has gradually decreased its vulnerability through policy rather than advertising.

The problem of jihadists is not abstract. It has its roots in radical Islamist networks that Pakistan has either supported, tolerated, or engaged. The epicentre of terrorism in the subcontinent will stay in Pakistan, as shown by the 2026 Index, unless Islamabad addresses this internal ideological disease rather than shifting the responsibility across the border.

Last year, there was a decrease in terrorism worldwide. But there are still unresolved issues in the story of South Asia. The numbers don’t lie. The real question is whether Islamabad will finally listen?

Fact Check: No, Bill Gates is not creating rainfall in North India using experimental technology, read how viral claims are misleading people

Dhruv Mishra

20 March, 2026

Fact Check: No, Bill Gates is not creating rainfall in North India using experimental technology, read how viral claims are misleading people

Over the last 2 days, North India has witnessed sudden rainfall, thunderstorms and even hail following an early March heat spike. Social media was quick to offer an explanation, one that had little to do with science. Last night, some Instagram influencers started posting about this. These viral reels began claiming that Bill Gates was somehow controlling rainfall in India through “artificial rain” and geoengineering experiments.

These claims, often amplified through short videos and misleading interpretations, are used by these creators to stoke fear among civilians by linking a natural weather event to unrelated global research, creating a narrative that does not stand up to factual scrutiny.

The Claim

Just right above, there is a screenshot of a reel with more than 18 million views and 1 million shares claiming that Bill Gates is controlling rainfall in India. These types of posts allege that “artificial rain” or chemtrails are being used to create recent spells of rain and hail, while others suggest attempts to manipulate or control the Indian Monsoon through geoengineering experiments.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Aditya Gautam | Content (@awareurself1)

“It’s not normal rain, it’s death rain.”

A man in a video claims the ongoing rainfall is artificial and the result of cloud manipulation by Bill Gates.

He says people should not step out or get drenched, warning it could harm them.

He also urges parents to keep children away… pic.twitter.com/mXMCWsUdus
— Oppressor (@TyrantOppressor) March 20, 2026

Verdict: False

There is no evidence that Bill Gates, or any person or group, controls rainfall in India. Instead, these claims misinterpret scientific research and natural weather events.

What Actually Caused the Sudden Rainfall?

If not artificial intervention, then what explains the sudden rainfall in March? According to weather observations and updates shared by agencies such as the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the recent spell of rainfall across North India has been caused by the Western disturbance, a well-known meteorological phenomenon that originates in the Mediterranean region and travels eastward through Afghanistan and Pakistan before affecting India.

What makes this particular system notable is the presence of a rare straight-through, or low-pressure line, stretching across nearly 1,000 kilometres. Unlike the usual curved patterns seen in such systems, this straight alignment has led to a more organised and intense weather system, resulting in heavy rain, lightning, gusty winds and localised hail. The system also contributed to a drop in temperatures following an unusually warm March. This is a natural atmospheric process and has no connection to any artificial intervention.

How a Harvard Experiment Was Misrepresented

During these viral claims, influencers said that Whole Research Thing is conducting an experiment called SCoPEx. It is a proposed research initiative by Harvard University. The project was part of broader studies into solar geoengineering, which explores whether dispersing tiny particles in the upper atmosphere could help reflect sunlight and reduce global warming.

However, the experiment was extremely limited in scope, proposing to release only a small quantity of calcium carbonate similar to chalk dust. It was planned to take place in the Arctic region, and it has nothing to do with India. Notably, the experiment was never fully conducted and was eventually cancelled in 2024 following criticism. There was no large-scale deployment, and it had no connection whatsoever to India or its weather systems.

No Evidence Linking Bill Gates to India’s Weather

These claims also linked Bill Gates to India’s rainfall, which was entirely wrong. While he has funded several initiatives in India, these are focused on areas such as agriculture, climate resilience, and public health. A viral video in which he referred to setting up a “laboratory” in India has been widely misinterpreted.

In context, the statement referred to testing innovations in health and farming technologies, not conducting any form of weather manipulation. There is no credible evidence suggesting any involvement in controlling rainfall or influencing India’s climate systems.

What “Artificial Rain” Actually Means

The idea of “artificial rain” is frequently misunderstood. In India, this typically refers to cloud seeding, a method used to enhance rainfall under specific conditions. Cloud seeding involves dispersing substances such as silver iodide or salt into existing moisture-laden clouds to encourage precipitation.

However, this technique has clear limitations. It cannot create rain from the clear skies, nor can it control large-scale weather systems like the Monsoon. Its effects are generally modest and short-term. Several Indian states, including Karnataka and Maharashtra, have used cloud seeding during droughts, but these efforts are localised and unrelated to global geoengineering research or any individual actor.

Why Hailstones May Not Melt Quickly ?

Another part of the viral claims involves videos showing hailstones that don’t melt quickly. Some people use these videos as proof of “chemical rain” or fake weather. However, this claim is not correct. Hailstones can remain on the ground for a long time due to natural factors, such as low temperatures after a storm, clouds that block direct sunlight, and thick layers of accumulated ice. Melting can also take much longer in shaded areas or on grass. These are well-known weather patterns and show no evidence of human interference.

Can Anyone Control Weather at This Scale?

There are technologies that can change the weather, but they don’t work as well as people claim. For example, more than 50 countries use cloud seeding in some form; however, even the best programs can only slightly increase rainfall when conditions are right. Despite these efforts, there is currently no technology that can control large-scale weather systems, such as the Indian monsoon, or regional rainfall patterns. This is because it is not possible to control atmospheric processes right now, as they are too complicated and big.

Conclusion

In conclusion, claims that Bill Gates controls rainfall in India are baseless. Recent North Indian weather is due to a natural Western Disturbance, not to artificial intervention. No evidence shows any person or group can control rainfall at this scale; the viral narrative distorts both science and observable phenomena.

Amidst outrage over Muslims doing Iftar and throwing bones in Ganga, TheWire attempts to secularise the sacred river for the old objective of shielding Islamists

Shraddha Pandey

20 March, 2026

Amidst outrage over Muslims doing Iftar and throwing bones in Ganga, TheWire attempts to secularise the sacred river for the old objective of shielding Islamists

From Tarun Kumar’s lynching by a Muslim mob in Delhi’s Uttam Nagar over Holi colours spilling over a Muslim woman to Muslim youths doing ‘Iftar’ with Chicken Biryani on the Ganga River in Varanasi and throwing chewed bones into its sacred waters, the Islamo-leftist coterie invokes syncretic cultural references, ‘Ganga-Jamuni Tehzeeb’, and whatnot to shield Islamist attacks and mockery against Hindus. Amidst outrage over Muslims throwing bones in the sacred waters of the Ganga, Islamo-leftist outlet The Wire, notorious for giving a Muslim victimhood spin to anti-Hindu crimes, has attempted to ‘secularise’ the Ganga River.

In an opinion piece titled, “Who Owns the Ganga? A River of Many Faiths, Not One“, a Delhi-based writer, translator and researcher, Rakhshanda Jalil, offers family memories, Urdu poetry, and a dash of melodrama to establish a narrative that Ganga is a ‘secular’ river not owned only by Hindus, ironically, by saying that she belongs to many faiths.

Jalil opens the piece with an affectionate memory of her husband introducing her to the Ganga River in his ancestral lands in eastern Uttar Pradesh with the folk song: Ganga maiya tohre piyari chadhaibo… (O Mother Ganga, I offer this yellow dhoti to you…).

While the sentiment is beautiful and Rakshanda’s husband is free to express his admiration for the sacred river through the Bhojpuri song, the act of a Muslim man calling the Ganga River “Maiya” or mother is essentially un-Islamic.

Rakhshanda Jalil soft-peddles the trigger, lamenting that now FIRs are being registered against 14 Muslim men “for taking a boat out on the river and opening their fast on the Ganga; they are being accused of hurting the sentiments of the majority community.”

The usage of the term “majority community” here is essentially to push a subtle insinuation that the lodging of FIR against Muslim men for hurting Hindu religious sentiments is a case of arbitrary Hindu majoritarianism.

What Jalil skipped mentioning is that the Muslim youths have not been booked for taking out a boat on the Ganga River or opening their Roza during Ramzan. The accused Muslims were eating non-vegetarian food in the holy Ganges River, and they even threw the chewed bones into the sacred waters of Mother Ganga right in front of the Bindu Madhav Dharhara Temple.

She also did not highlight the fact that even Muslim clerics have said that, contrary to the picnic the accused Muslim youths were having, Iftar is a purely religious event, with Maghrib namaz to be performed.

“But what of their sentiments? And that of their forefathers? What of those people, such as my husband’s family, who have lived beside the Ganga for generations and have nothing but the greatest affection and regard for this special river that has nurtured civilisation for millennia? In the New India that is Bharat we have already divided up colours (saffron is Hindu, green is Muslim), food (sattvic vs halal), etc, are we also going to decide who has first rights over rivers and mountains?” Jalil asks in the article published on 19th March 2026.

The author deliberately avoided addressing the “hurting of the sentiments of the majority community” part properly, perhaps considering the sentiments of Hindus insignificant. Jalil proceeded directly towards doing what The Wire does best: giving a Muslim victimhood spin to incidents where Hindus are the victims and Muslims are the aggressors.

She asks: “But what of their sentiments? And that of their forefathers? What of those people, such as my husband’s family, who have lived beside the Ganga for generations and have nothing but the greatest affection and regard for this special river that has nurtured civilisation for millennia? In the New India that is Bharat we have already divided up colours (saffron is Hindu, green is Muslim), food (sattvic vs halal), etc; are we also going to decide who has first rights over rivers and mountains?”

How conveniently, The Wire flipped the aggressor-aggrieved dynamic, making Muslim sentiments a bigger issue in an incident wherein it is Muslims who have hurt the religious sentiments of Hindus.

A river, believed to be sacred by one and not by others, does not discriminate and nurtures all living beings it touches. However, Muslims’ regard and affection for the Ganga River is not the same as Hindus’ worshipping the river as holy, a mother, and a living deity (Devi).

If Hindus actually asserted exclusive ownership over the Ganga River, weaponising their religious sentiments, they would have demanded barring Muslims from accessing the river completely. The access to Ganga is universal, but deliberate defiling and mockery of its sanctity is not.

Also, this assertion that in the New India, by which the Islamo-leftists usually mean Modi’s India or India after 2014, has become divided into saffron is Hindu, green is Muslim, and sattvic vs halal, is dishonest. These divisions have existed for decades and shall continue to exist. India’s bloody partition was done because of the green’s intolerance of the saffron. Even after enduring the stab of partition, saffron tolerated and accommodated green, even at the cost of ceding its own rights to uphold the farce of ‘Hindu-Muslim unity’. All was hunky dory till the ‘minority’ was dominating and intimidating the majority. The society became divisive only when saffron began to pushback green’s intransigence, and sattvic resisted halal’s dominance.

One wonders if The Wire would defend Hindus if they ate pork inside a mosque complex and left its remnants there during the ‘holy’ month of Ramzan?

There is a glaring hypocrisy in this “river belongs to all faiths” narrative. This supposed ‘universalism’ is never extended in the reverse direction. Muslims maintain exclusivity of their religious sites, food choices, and lifestyle, even in localities where the Muslim community is in the majority, calling for boycott or Sar Tan Se Juda of those who supposedly hurt their religious sentiments. But Hindus are lectured to share their living deity, only for meat bones to be hurled in her sacred waters in a deliberate ‘picnic’ style. This is nothing but a blatant dilution of sacred Hindu geography and its unasked opening for reinterpretation in the name of composite culture, secularism and whatnot, all while Islamic exclusivity remains non-negotiable and sacrosanct to scrutiny.

Jalil asks if we are also going to decide who has first rights over rivers and mountains. She should ask this question to her co-religionists first. From Waqf Boards laying illegal claims over Hindu villages and temples, to Islamists in Tamil Nadu, who claim the ownership of the Thiruparankundram Hills and seek its renaming, even as the entire hill historically belonged to the Hindu temple there.

The author suggested that, amidst the controversy over Muslim youth doing an Iftar party and throwing bones in the sacred waters of the Ganga, it would be appropriate to revisit Urdu poetry written on the Ganga by Muslim poets.

Jalil could not find a better poet than Muhammad Iqbal to contend that since Muslims wrote Urdu poetry on the Ganga River, the river belongs to them as well.

“And the perfect place to start might be the vast ouvre of Iqbal, the poet we are constantly being taught to hate: the much-despised Muhammad Iqbal. Writing his Tarana-e-Hind (The Song of India) in 1904 as a patriotic song for children that went on to become one of the most popular songs for school choruses till its political baggage was discovered and it was promptly discarded, Iqbal begins with ‘Saare jahan se achha Hindostan hamara’ (Our India is the fairest in the entire world)…” Jalil writes.

Notice the subtle nuance in Jalil’s description of Muhammad Iqbal: “the poet we are constantly being taught to hate: the much-despised Muhammad Iqbal.”

Despite Iqbal deserving all the abhorrence he gets from Indian people aware of his literary, political, and Islamist activities, beyond ‘Saare jahan se acha’, nobody is being constantly taught to hate him. Ensuring that the Indian youth know who all were responsible for propagating the idea of Pakistan’s creation on Islamic lines is not the same as peddling hate.

Muhammad Iqbal was one of the main proponents of the two-nation theory that led to the creation of Pakistan in the first half of the 20th century. The famous composition ‘Sare Jahaan Se Achcha’ was published in 1904 by Muhammad Iqbal, a year before the Partition of Bengal in British India. The most famous lines of the composition, which form its sixth stanza, say, “Maẕhab nahīṉ sikhātā āpas meṉ bair rakhnā, Hindī haiṉ ham, wat̤an hai Hindositāṉ hamārā”.

In Independent India, liberals and Islamists masquerading as secularists have reduced Iqbal’s legacy to these two lines, ignoring almost entirely his contribution to the formation of Pakistan.

In Tarana-e-Milli, which the poet wrote in 1910 for children, Iqbal revealed his real Islamic fundamentalist nature. It was composed in the same meter and rhyme scheme as ‘Sare Jahaan Se Achcha’, contradicting the thought of unity with the call for division based on religion. The first stanza of this particular composition contrasted sharply with the sixth stanza of his prior composition. It said, “Cīn o-ʿArab hamārā, Hindūstāṉ hamārā, Muslim haiṉ ham, wat̤an hai sārā jahāṉ hamārā. tauhīd kī amānat sīnoñ meñ hai hamāre, āsāñ nahīñ miTānā nām-o-nishāñ hamārā.

Moving ahead, Jalil’s article cites poetry by Suroor Barabankvi, Nida Fazli, and Sardar Jafri, among others, wherein these poets appreciated the beauty and purity of the Ganga and admired the landscape as Indians. However, not one piece of poetry she cited revered Ganga as Mother or Devi, the divine, as Hindus do.

For those poets, and Muslims generally, Ganga could be a nurturing water body, a symbol of flowing beauty, and a philosophical metaphor, but never a deity, an object of Islamic worship, prayer or pilgrimage. Islam is alien to the concept of sacred feminine energy, let alone its worship.

Ganga is divine only for Hindus because Islam has no concept of sacred feminine or nature worship. The Urdu poetry Jalil highlights in her article only demonstrates cultural syncretism and not religious ownership of the Ganga.

Ganga is the cradle of the Sanatan Civilisation. The Ganga Valley nurtured Vedic, Puranic, and classical Hindu civilisation for millennia. Be it Varanasi, Gangotri, Haridwar, Prayagraj, or Kolkata’s ghats, they are all defined by Hindu pilgrimage, finding roots in Hindu religious scriptures. Be it medieval Islamic invaders and those they converted to Islam by the force of sword, or the British colonisers, none attached any religious sentimental value to Ganga, while Hindus, since times immemorial have revered and worshipped the sacred river as Maa Ganga, the giver of salvation who descended from the heavens in the matted locks of Mahadev, beautifully described by Maharishi Valmiki in this verse from Ramayana’s Bal Kand:

gaganaat shaMkara shiraH tato dharaNim aagataa || 1-43-15
asarpata jalam tatra tiivra shabda puraskR^itam |

Maa Ganga is believed by Hindus to be the blessing, the reward of royal sage Bhagiratha’s Tapasya. Call it ‘New India’ or ‘Bharat’, this land is rooted in Hindu consciousness. Hindu civilisation will always be the OWNER of Bharat’s lands, rivers, mountains, and every nook and cranny.

While Muslim poets have described the beauty and serenity of Ganga, Maharishi Valmiki described her origins, her journey and her divinity.

tato haimavatii jyeShThaa sarva loka namaskR^itaa |
tadaa saa ati mahat ruupam kR^itvaa vegam ca duHsaham ||1-43-4
aakaashaat apatat raama shive shiva shirasy uta |

(Afterwards, she who is reverenced by all the worlds and who is the elder daughter of Himavanta, that Ganga, assuming an unendurable form and an insupportable rapidity, they say, then plunged from the sky onto the auspicious head of Shiva.)

acintayaH ca saa devii gaMga parama dur.hdharaa ||1-43-5
vishaami aham hi paataalam strotasaa gR^ihya shaMkaram |

(She who is an extremely unendurable river that goddess Ganga even speculated, saying to herself, ‘let me enter netherworld, indeed whisking Shiva with my streams.)

Maharishi Valmiki describes how the Hladini, Paavani, and Nalini streams of Ganga cruised eastwards, Sucakshu, Seetha, and the river Sindhu streamed to the westward direction, while the seventh stream flowed towards the path of Bhageeratha’s chariot.

From Ramayana to Mahabharat, from Gaumukh to Bay of Bengal, from a nurturer to a giver of salvation, from Kumbh Mela to asthi-visarjan in accordance with Garud Purana, from a water body to a witness of history, Ganga spiritually and culturally belongs to the Sanatan Hindu civilisation that birthed, worshipped, and sustained it for thousands of years. Ganga is not anyone’s property to be legally owned, but alienating her from the historical and civilisational truth to ‘secularise’ the divine river and normalise its desecration by Muslims is unacceptable. There is no equivalence in the supposed poetic love Muslims have for Ganga and the devotion Hindus have. Secularising Ganga amounts to the erasure of its sanctity and divinity.

From killings of Hindus and rapes of minors to wars and riots: 50+ incidents show how peaceful Ramadan 2026 was, fundamentalists did not even spare Muslims

सौम्या सिंह

20 March, 2026

From killings of Hindus and rapes of minors to wars and riots: 50+ incidents show how peaceful Ramadan 2026 was, fundamentalists did not even spare Muslims

Ramadan is considered the holiest month in Islam. Muslims claim it is a month of worship, patience, almsgiving (zakat), and, above all, of forgetting rivalries and living in harmony. But here arises the crucial question: why, during this holy month of “peace” and “blessings,” are Muslims found involved in incidents of violence, conflict, and bloodshed?

On one hand, Islamic religious scholars preach that only virtuous deeds should be performed during Ramadan, but on the other hand, social media appears filled with inflammatory rhetoric. During Ramadan 2026, not only Islamic fundamentalists but also Islamic countries disregarded the month. In the 30 days of Ramadan, countless incidents of murder, looting, assault, violence, and rape were reported.

Here, OpIndia presents a list of 50 such incidents during Ramadan, including a young Hindu man’s murder in Delhi by Islamists and the death of 400 people in a hospital in Afghanistan. Read on and decide whether Islamic fundamentalists truly consider Ramadan a month of prayer, patience, and charity.

Middle East: A war-ridden Ramadan and a deepening humanitarian crisis

During the entire period of Ramadan, the situation in the Middle East remained extremely fragile and tense. Particularly, in Iran, the turmoil at the highest levels of power and the ongoing major attacks there have drawn global attention. Fierce military strikes by the United States and Israel have inflicted significant damage on Iran’s strategic locations, further deepening the instability in the country. Surprisingly, even during this month of ‘peace’, violence has intensified rather than diminished.

Within hours of US and Israeli strikes, Iran responded aggressively, launching missile and drone attacks against several countries in the region. This retaliation targeted not only its military rivals but also several Muslim-majority countries, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, and Kuwait. This wave of war and attacks has created a serious humanitarian crisis in the region during the holy month of Ramadan, where conflict and the struggle for military supremacy have overshadowed the peace of worship.

1. Chaos in Kuwait: Embassy attack and Iran’s ‘Ramadan Offensive’

On March 2, 2026, Kuwait City was jolted when the US Embassy was directly targeted as part of Iran’s so-called “Ramadan Offensive”. The attack involved a coordinated barrage of missiles and lethal drones (UAVs), raining down death from the sky, filling the city’s air with a thick cloud of smoke. Although Kuwait responded swiftly and shot down several drones mid-air, the horrific attack claimed one life and seriously injured 32 others.

Such a direct attack on a country’s diplomatic mission not only blatantly flouts international law but also makes clear that Iran is no longer averse to inciting violence in its Arab neighbours. This military action, carried out during the holy month of peace (Ramadan), has transformed the entire Gulf region into a battlefield.

2. Chaos in Tel Aviv: Iranian ballistic missiles wreak havoc on residential areas

On March 1, 2026, Iran launched massive ballistic missile attacks on Israel, further fueling the regional conflict. Although Israel’s Iron Dome defence system destroyed several missiles mid-air, the sheer force of the attacks caused one missile to penetrate the security perimeter and land directly on the residential area of Beit Shemesh. The massive explosion wreaked havoc, killing nine people on the spot, bringing the total death toll to 12.

The severity of this attack can be gauged from the fact that more than 150 people were injured. The way the missile landed in a residential area clearly indicates that the target was not a military installation but innocent civilians. This violent act, carried out during the holy month of Ramadan, not only shocks human sensibilities but also raises serious questions about Iran’s claims of religious and peaceful values.

3. Fear in Gulf countries: Iran’s missile attack and attack on sovereignty

On February 28, 2026, Iran simultaneously launched missiles against major Gulf cities: Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Doha, sending shockwaves throughout the region. This missile blitz targeted not only US military installations but also civilian and residential infrastructure. The magnitude of this attack can be gauged from the fact that one person was killed in Abu Dhabi, while massive explosions were also reported near Dubai landmarks like the Burj Khalifa.

Given the security risks posed by these attacks, airspace across the Middle East had to be immediately closed, halting international flights and causing widespread chaos at Dubai Airport. This incident clearly underscores that in its struggle for regional dominance, Iran is now unwilling to compromise the security and sovereignty of its own Muslim neighbours.

3. War on the Borders: Pakistan-Afghanistan Bloody Clash in Ramadan

Hopes for peace in South Asia during the ‘holy month’ fell apart when tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan escalated into a fierce military confrontation. Pakistani Air Force fighter jets crossed into Afghan territory and launched heavy airstrikes on Kabul, Kandahar, and several other areas. The Afghan Taliban government strongly condemned the attacks, alleging that Pakistan deliberately targeted civilian targets.

The severity of these attacks can be estimated from the fact that even a hospital in Kabul was hit by the Pakistani bombing. According to media reports, nearly 400 people have lost their lives so far in the horrific military aggression, and over 250 have been seriously injured. These attacks on hospitals and residential areas during the holy month of Ramadan have not only deepened the humanitarian crisis but also escalated the bitterness between the two neighbouring Islamic countries.

4. Chaos in Karachi: Pro-Iranian mobs rampage and attack the US consulate

Following the news of Iran’s Supreme Leader’s death, violence erupted in Karachi, Pakistan, plunging the city into chaos. On March 1, 2026, a pro-Iranian mob attempted to attack the US Consulate, leading to a massive outcry. Protesters not only set police checkpoints on fire but also caused significant damage to government and international diplomatic properties.

This wave of violence wasn’t limited to Karachi. In Skardu, a mob also set fire to the United Nations (UN) office. So far, 22 people have lost their lives in these fierce clashes and violent incidents, while more than 120 others have been seriously injured. The violence during the holy month of Ramadan raised serious questions about the internal security and law and order in Pakistan.

5. Pakistani airstrikes on Khost and Paktika in Afghanistan

On February 28, 2026, Pakistan Air Force fighter jets crossed the Afghan border and launched heavy bombing raids on Khost and Paktika provinces. Pakistan described these attacks as actions against terrorist targets, but innocent people paid a heavy price. At least eight civilians, including women and children, were killed in this military operation.

The incident has escalated tensions between the two countries, and the Taliban termed it a direct violation of their sovereignty and launched a counter-offensive. The fighting, which erupted during the holy month of Ramadan, has wreaked havoc in the border areas, forcing thousands of families to flee their homes for their lives.

6. Ramadan begins and mourning on the border: Pakistani military strikes in Nangarhar-Paktika

In the early days of the holy month of Ramadan, as the world hoped for peace, Pakistan escalated tensions by launching another major military operation in the Nangarhar and Paktika provinces of Afghanistan on February 22, 2026. Pakistan described these attacks as a necessary action against terrorism, but the civilian population paid a heavy price for this military operation.

This horrific attack claimed the lives of 17 Afghan civilians, further exacerbating the already bitter tensions between the two neighbouring countries. This bloody incident, occurring during these early days of prayer and prosperity, has shattered all hopes for peace and created an atmosphere of terror in the border areas.

7. Chaos in Karnataka, India: Stones pelted from a mosque on the Shivaji Jayanti procession

A disturbing incident of communal tension happened on February 20, 2026, in Bagalkot, Karnataka, raising serious questions about law and order. A procession commemorating the birth anniversary of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj was targeted as it passed in front of the Panka Mosque. It is alleged that fundamentalists present there suddenly began pelting the procession with slippers and stones, causing chaos in the area.

The attackers did not even spare the district’s Superintendent of Police (SP), Siddharth Goyal, who was on duty. He suffered injuries to his head and neck. The blood stains on his uniform testified to the fact that the attackers had neither fear of the administration nor respect for the law. This well-planned attack on a peaceful procession once again presents a worrying picture of growing Islamic extremism and deteriorating social harmony.

8. Tension in Jabalpur: Temple Aarti and fundamentalist attack

An alarming case of Islamic radicalisation emerged from the sensitive Sihora tehsil of Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh. On the night of February 19, 2026, while the Hindu community was performing the evening aarti at the Durga temple as per the tradition, it coincided with namaz at the nearby mosque. The peaceful atmosphere suddenly turned tense when a young man allegedly damaged the temple grill. This was not just a loss of property, but a direct attack on the faith and devotion of Hindus.

As residents protested against the act, the Islamist mob turned violent and began heavy stone-pelting. This sudden attack ignited communal tensions in the entire area. The vandalism of the temple complex and the ensuing violence posed a significant challenge to the local administration, clearly the result of a well-planned radicalisation.

9. Tension in Hyderabad: Huge uproar in Amberpet over Shivaji Jayanti slogans

A similar case came to light in Hyderabad’s Amberpet area, where a Shivaji Jayanti procession was targeted. The dispute began when the procession passed by a local mosque, where Islamists strongly objected to the music being played in the procession. The situation quickly escalated into heated arguments and violent scuffles, creating an atmosphere of fear in the area.

It’s often seen that attempts are made to suppress Hindu cultural and religious expression under the pretext of “disrupting prayer,” and the same pattern was evident here. Seeing the situation spiralling out of control, the administration immediately intervened, imposing Section 163, BNSS (a curfew-like restriction) in the area for the next four days. Police arrested eight rioters in connection with the incident.

10. Horrific incident in Mahbubnagar: Attempted mob lynching of a Hindu youth over a social media post

An incident of extremist violence has come to light from Telangana’s Mahbubnagar district. Here, a Hindu youth named Santosh was brutally attacked by a mob of about 20-25 people simply because he had shared a post on social media related to the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. This story, posted on March 1, 2026, went viral in local groups and enraged the extremists, who reached Santosh’s shop at around 9 pm and started beating him mercilessly with kicks and punches.

The victim, Santosh, said that the mob tried to crush him to the ground, and if another shopkeeper hadn’t shown courage and pulled him out, he could have lost his life. The attackers were so audacious that they continued to roam near his shop even after midnight, with the intent of attacking him again. Police identified 11 people in this case, nine of whom were arrested, though they were later granted bail.

11. Sensational incident in Bengaluru: Fiancee strangled to death during Ramadan

An incident came to light in Karnataka’s capital, Bengaluru, where 20-year-old Mohammed Sabeel brutally murdered his minor fiancée, Zoya, during the holy month of Ramadan. This horrific incident took place in the DJ Halli area on March 16, 2026, around 6 am. According to the police, despite Zoya being a minor, the two were engaged and were about to get married soon. On the day of the incident, Sabeel had taken Zoya to a relative’s house, where a heated argument broke out between the two over some issue.

The dispute escalated to the point where Sabeel lost his temper and, in a fit of rage, slit Zoya’s neck with a sharp weapon, killing her instantly. Sabeel immediately fled the scene. About an hour later, when Sabeel’s relatives returned home, they found Zoya’s body lying on the ground, covered in blood. Police, responding to the family’s information, began investigating the case and launched a frantic search for the absconding accused, Sabeel. This brutal murder, committed during the holy month of Ramadan, has sent shockwaves throughout the area.

12. Bloody Holi in Delhi: A young man beaten to death over a minor balloon dispute

A heartbreaking incident took place in Uttam Nagar (Hastasal Rehabilitation Colony) in Delhi, where the joy of Holi turned into mourning. The dispute began with a trivial incident when an 11-year-old girl from the family of the Hindu victim, Tarun, was playing Holi on the terrace of her house. She threw a water balloon at her father standing below, which accidentally fell onto the road, and the water splashed on a Muslim woman from the neighbourhood. The girl’s family said that they immediately apologised, but the Muslim woman and her family started a fight and called their relatives.

About an hour after the incident, 26-year-old Tarun was returning home on his bike after playing Holi with his friend when a mob of 15-20 Islamist militants ambushed him. The mob brutally attacked Tarun with iron rods, bricks, and stones. His grandfather, Man Singh, said through a choked voice that the attackers brutally beat him and, when he fell unconscious on the road, struck him in the chest with a heavy stone. Tarun died while undergoing treatment at the hospital. This dispute, which began over a small balloon, took the life of a cheerful young man due to a radical mindset.

13. Bloody Holi clash in Etah: Dalit youth beaten to death on the pretext of paint falling on him

A similar incident happened in the Etah district in Uttar Pradesh, where, amidst the festivities of Holi, Islamists targeted the family of a Dalit youth. On March 4, 2026, at around 8 p.m., 22-year-old Akash was playing Holi outside his home. Three brothers from the neighbourhood, Arbaaz, Shahbaaz, and Mustafa, happened to pass by and accidentally some colour got spilled on their clothes. Over this trivial matter, the three began abusing Akash’s mother and sister. When Akash resisted, the accused threw him to the ground and began brutally beating him with sticks.

Arbaaz struck Akash hard on the head with the butt of his pistol, causing him to collapse and start bleeding. When Akash’s sister Bina and sister-in-law Varsha ran to save him, Mustafa and Arbaaz assaulted them as well. As they left, the accused insulted the victim’s family with casteist slurs and threatened to kill them, saying, “We won’t let you live here.”

14. Delhi brutality: Innocents brutalised behind the shutters of a halal meat shop

A heinous incident came to light during Ramadan in the Dwarka area of the country’s capital, Delhi. A 65-year-old Muslim man near Goyala Dairy targeted a Hindu girl aged 6 to 9 years. The incident took place on March 16, 2026, when the girl was playing with her younger sister near a school. The accused, who ran a Halal meat shop nearby, lured the girl on the pretext of giving her something and took her inside his Halal meat shop. There, he closed the shutter of the shop and committed brutality on the innocent girl.

This horrific incident came to light when the girl’s mother and a relative caught the accused red-handed, leading to communal tension in the area. The girl revealed that the Muslim man had also assaulted her on an earlier occasion. Following protests from residents, the police arrested him.

15. Chaos at Raisen Fort: Historic cannon fire, pro-Iran slogans raised

A controversial video from Raisen Fort in Madhya Pradesh went viral on social media recently. In the video, some Muslim men were seen standing on a hill above the historic fort, chanting “Allah-hu-Akbar” and saying things like “We support Iran“. The Muslim men, then, lit an ancient cannon in the fort with a matchstick. As soon as the fire broke out, a loud explosion occurred, filling the entire area with smoke.

The incident was presented as a particularly provocative message on social media, sparking outrage among locals. Based on a complaint from Brijesh Chawaria, a resident of Patel Nagar, Raisen, the police immediately took action and, given the seriousness of the matter, arrested four accused. The arrested Muslim men have been identified as Shadab Qureshi, Yusuf Sheikh, Wasim Mohammad, and Pappu alias Salman Qureshi. The desecration of historical heritage and the use of provocative slogans fueled communal tensions and security concerns in the area.

16. Raipur riot: Stone pelting at Marhi Mata Temple and bloody feud

The Maudhapara area of Raipur, the capital of Chhattisgarh, was engulfed by violence and stone-pelting on March 16, 2026. The dispute began with a confrontation between two groups, which quickly escalated into a violent brawl near the Marhi Mata Temple. According to claims circulating on social media, a mob of Islamic fundamentalists targeted the temple late at night and pelted stones, sparking widespread communal tension in the area. In protest, a large number of Bajrang Dal activists surrounded the Maudhapara police station and issued a clear warning that if strict action was not taken against the perpetrators of the attack, they would retaliate.

According to media reports, this wave of violence in Raipur wasn’t limited to stone-pelting; four separate incidents of stabbings were also reported around the same time. Police investigations revealed that the Maudhapura violence stems from an old rivalry. Last year, men named Altaf and Rashid had attacked Ravi Raksel, leading to a feud between the two groups.

17. Desecration of the Holy Ganga: ‘Biryani party’ on a moving boat in Varanasi, 14 arrested

An incident that deeply hurt thereligious sentiments of Hindus came to light from the religious city of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. A viral video of the incident showed a group of Muslims holding an Iftar party on a boat in the middle of the holy river Ganga. The incident happened on March 16, 2026, when a group of Muslim men broke their fast by feasting on ‘Chicken Biryani’ kept in a large vessel on a moving boat. After eating non-vegetarian food, these Muslim men threw the leftover bones directly into the holy stream of the river Ganga, thereby hurting the religious sentiments of Sanatan Dharma and the purity of the river.

The incident sparked widespread outrage among residents and Hindu organisations. Given the sensitivity of the matter, Varanasi police acted swiftly, arresting 14 individuals involved in the “floating party.”

18. Kidnapping and conversion of a minor Hindu girl in Rampur

On February 22, 2026, in the Patwai area of Rampur district in Uttar Pradesh, a minor Hindu girl was kidnapped, held hostage, and forcibly converted. The incident sparked widespread outrage among the victim’s family and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) activists. The organisation immediately reached the Patwai police station, filed a written complaint, and strongly demanded that the girl be rescued immediately.

However, even after 24 hours of the incident, no trace of the girl was found, prompting Hindu organisations to issue a strict ultimatum to the police. According to the complaint, two Muslim youths abducted the girl and pressured her to convert to Islam. The police detained the village head and began questioning him.

19. Identity-based brutality: Mohammad Javed poses as Rahul Patel and blackmails people in Mehsana

A case of exploitation of a Hindu girl by concealing identity came to light from Khedalu town in Mehsana district, Gujarat. The incident occurred on February 22, 2026, when a man named Mohammad Javed posed as Rahul Patel, befriended the Hindu girl and deceived her. The accused gained her trust and took private photographs of her, which he later used to blackmail her.

The victim alleged that Javed lured her to a guest house, where he attempted to rape her. Upon receiving information about this heinous act, family members and villagers immediately rushed to the scene and caught the accused red-handed. Police swung into action, and based on the victim’s complaint, a case was registered against Mohammad Javed under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), and he was taken into custody.

20. A Hindu man attacked in his house by a Muslim mob with a hammer for playing the Hanuman Chalisa in Ghaziabad

On March 10, 2026, a Hindu family was attacked by a violent mob for playing the Hanuman Chalisa on a loudspeaker in the Nandgram area of Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. According to victim Hrithik Singh, the dispute began when some Muslim families in the neighbourhood objected to the Hanuman Chalisa being played on a DJ. This minor altercation quickly escalated into a conflict when Tahir, Rashid, and Salman, along with several unidentified associates, forcibly entered Hrithik’s home.

Pooja, a member of the victim’s family, said the attackers first targeted her husband while he was at a nearby shop, and then stormed the house. The attackers, crossing all limits of brutality, attacked Pooja’s innocent daughter with a hammer, leaving her bleeding. The family claims they were also publicly threatened with death. Station House Officer (SHO) of Nandgram police station, Umesh Kumar, took the main accused, Tahir, Rashid, and Salman, into police custody.

21. Radicalisation in Hyderabad: Cab driver brutally beaten for ‘Jai Shri Ram’ sticker

A disturbing incident of religious intolerance happened in the JB Nagar area of Hyderabad, Telangana. Late on the night of February 26, 2026, Suresh Gaur, a Hindu cab driver, was targeted simply because he had a ‘Jai Shri Ram’ sticker on the back of his car. According to reports, a violent group of Muslims stopped his cab and started an argument over the sticker, which quickly escalated into a violent attack.

The mob of around 25-30 Islamic fundamentalists surrounded Suresh Gaur, forcibly pulled him out of his vehicle, and assaulted him. The attackers not only injured the driver but also vandalised his cab, shattering the windows and causing significant damage to the vehicle.

22. Communal clash in Kodagu: Hindu youth attacked during religious announcement

On March 3, 2026, in Napoklu town, Kodagu district, Karnataka, the announcement of a religious event led to violence. The incident occurred when some Hindu men announced an upcoming religious event through a loudspeaker on a vehicle. Local Muslim youths objected, leading to a minor altercation that quickly escalated into a violent fight. A Hindu youth named Gautam was seriously injured in the attack.

Following the incident, Hindu organisations demanded the immediate arrest of the culprits. Recognising the gravity of the situation, the police acted swiftly and registered an FIR against Rashid, Siddique, Suhail, and Rafi. Suhail, one of the main accused, was taken into custody.

23. Chhindwara audacity: A Hindu woman was threatened with rape by a man posing as a ‘Pathan’ on Instagram

A case of mental harassment via social media was reported in the Chhindwara district in Madhya Pradesh. The incident took place on February 24, 2026, when a 22-year-old Hindu woman shared a statement by a Hindu leader on Instagram. Enraged by this post, three Muslim men named Bilal, Dilawar, and Salman targeted the Hindu woman. They not only pressured her to remove the post through phone calls, but also crossed all limits of decency to intimidate her.

The accused used extremely offensive and violent language to mentally break the Hindu woman. One of the accused flaunted his identity and said, “I am a Pathan, I can actually commit a rape,” while the other, in an attempt to humiliate the girl, claimed that four girls from her community were his “girlfriends.” Instead of being intimidated by these horrific threats, the Hindu woman showed courage and immediately informed her family and filed a police complaint. Chhindwara police arrested all of them.

24. Dehradun Holi riot: Hindu youth attacked in a dispute over a burst balloon.

A disturbing incident of extremist violence happened amid the Holi celebrations in Dehradun, Uttarakhand. On March 2, 2026, Chirag Anand and his friend Anand were playing Holi near RGM Plaza on Chakrata Road when a water balloon got stuck on an electrical wire and burst. The water from the balloon splashed onto the clothes of Sahil Dhiman, who was standing nearby, leading to a clash.

Sahil got enraged and called his friends, and within moments, a mob of over 20 Muslims attacked Chirag with sticks and rods. The attackers brutally inflicted severe injuries on Chirag’s head and back, forcing him to hide in a nearby alley. It is alleged that the mob did not stop there; after pelting him with stones and bricks, they went to the victim’s home, where they also pushed and abused his mother.

25. Riots at Holika Dahan in Rajkot: Stunts and indecency towards women during the puja

On March 2, 2026, in the Bhagwatipara area of Rajkot, Gujarat, tensions erupted during the sacred Holika Dahan celebrations when an attempt was made to disrupt the atmosphere of devotion and faith. At the time of the incident, a large number of local women and children were worshipping and circumambulating Holika. Meanwhile, two Muslim youths on a motorcycle suddenly arrived and began performing dangerous stunts in the crowd, causing panic.

When bystanders protested this unsafe and offensive behaviour, the Muslim youth left but returned shortly afterwards, accompanied by a mob of Islamists. The dispute quickly escalated into a violent clash. The Muslim mob created a ruckus, hurled abuses and behaved indecently towards the women present there. Police acted swiftly and detained several suspects on charges of disturbing the peace.

26. Religious tradition violated in Rampur: Huge uproar over premature Holika Dahan

Tensions erupted in Bajidpur village, Rampur district, Uttar Pradesh, on March 2, 2026, during Holika Dahan, when a Muslim man disrupted the religious ceremony. As per tradition, hundreds of Hindu families, women, and children had gathered for Holika Dahan and Parikrama at the auspicious time after the lunar eclipse. While people were preparing for the puja, a Muslim man secretly set fire to Holika before the scheduled time.

This incident sparked widespread outrage among the Hindus present, who saw it as a direct violation of their centuries-old religious traditions. As the situation became extremely tense, the Police immediately detained the Muslim man.

27. Bloody Holi in Chandauli: E-rickshaw rider and his friends carried out a deadly attack over colouring

On March 5, 2026, the joy of Holi in Dudhari-Tenduhan village in the Chandauli district of Uttar Pradesh, turned to mourning when a trivial matter sparked a violent clash. Some Hindu men were dancing to traditional songs and applying colours to each other when some colour accidentally splashed onto a passing e-rickshaw driver named Khurshid. Khurshid got angry over this small incident and immediately called his friends to the scene.

The dispute turned violent, and the Muslim men, armed with sticks, hockey sticks, and sharp weapons, attacked the Hindu men playing Holi. The situation reached its peak when the attackers entered the home of a Hindu man and brutally assaulted those present. Nearly half a dozen people were seriously injured in this well-planned attack. Police acted swiftly and arrested the three main accused.

28. Stone pelting in Tonk on the eve of Holi: Violence after namaz left father and daughter bleeding

On the night of March 3, 2026, just a day before the festivities of Holi, communal tension and violence erupted in the Tonk district of Rajasthan, where an old dispute suddenly escalated into a violent incident. According to media reports, the dispute began when a Muslim family returned home after offering namaz and got into a fight with local Hindu families. The altercation escalated to the point where both sides resorted to lathi-charge and heavy stone-pelting, creating panic and chaos in the area.

A Hindu father and his daughter were seriously injured in this bloody clash and were immediately admitted to the Tonk District Hospital. Given the sensitivity of the situation, Tonk Deputy Superintendent of Police Mrityunjay Mishra deployed Rajasthan Armed Constabulary personnel, along with police from the City Kotwali, Purana Tonk, and Sadar police stations.

29. Barbarity in Bangladesh: A Hindu man beheaded and thrown near a brick kiln

Gopal Chandra Das, a 45-year-old Hindu man, was brutally murdered in the Pirojpur district of neighbouring Bangladesh. Gopal, who went missing on March 13, 2026, was found decapitated, and his body was found the next day on a riverbank near an abandoned brick kiln in Nesarabad subdistrict. The gruesome condition of the body sent shockwaves through the area and created widespread panic among the local Hindu community. According to police, the body was found near Mamun Miyan’s brick kiln premises, and the missing head of the body was evidence of the murderers’ extreme brutality.

The family named two individuals, Mohammad Samrat and Mohammad Raju, as suspects for this heinous murder. Initial investigations and family statements indicated that Gopal Chandra Das was first abducted and then taken to a secluded location and murdered. Police arrested the accused, Mohammad Samrat, while the other accused, Mohammad Raju, remained at large.

30. Holi riot in Munger: Stone pelting in a dispute over applying colours

On March 4, 2026, the joyous celebrations of Holi turned tense in the Jamalpur area of Munger district, Bihar, when a violent clash broke out near the railway track connecting Sadar Bazaar and Rampur Colony. Locals were applying colour to each other with traditional fervour when a dispute arose between the Muslim community over the application of colour. The dispute escalated to the point where a mob of local Muslims pelted stones at the Hindus present.

One Hindu man sustained serious injuries in the sudden attack, while several others were also injured. Police took action, detaining five suspects and an investigation was launched to ensure the perpetrators receive the harshest punishment.

31. Ujjain riot: Stone pelting and attack on India’s World Cup victory celebrations

On the night of March 8, 2026, in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, a Hindu family celebrating India’s historic victory in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup final was attacked. The incident occurred in Raj Royal Colony, under the jurisdiction of the Chimanganj Mandi police station, where Islamists caused violence during Ramadan. The Hindu family was celebrating the country’s victory by bursting firecrackers outside their home when some Muslim neighbours objected to the firecrackers and got into an argument.

The argument quickly escalated into a violent clash, and the Muslim mob brutally assaulted the family. Several family members of the Hindu family were injured in the attack. Immediate action was taken based on the victim’s complaint. Police detained Wahid Khan, Zakir, Sultan, Shadab, and other accused.

32. Ramadan terror in Rajasthan: Hindu family attacked for celebrating Bumrah’s wicket

On the night of March 8, 2026, in Badhoda Ghumakkad village under Kishangarh Bas police station of Alwar district (Khairthal-Tijara area) of Rajasthan, the excitement of cricket turned into a conflict when celebrating India’s victory proved costly for a Hindu family. This incident, which took place in the month of Ramadan, started when a Hindu family was enjoying the match between India and New Zealand on the terrace of their house. As soon as Indian bowler Jasprit Bumrah took two consecutive wickets in an over, the family members expressed their happiness by clapping in excitement.

Local Muslims in the neighbourhood objected to this celebration of the match and began abusing. The dispute quickly escalated, and soon a mob of around 15 to 20 Islamists, armed with sticks and iron rods, attacked the Hindu family. They pelted stones at the house of the Hindu family. One of the attackers climbed onto the roof and opened fire. In the attack, 30-year-old Bhajano Baiwas suffered a serious head injury and was left bleeding.

33. ‘Nikah’ plot in Bhiwandi during Ramadan: Minor raped

In Bhiwandi, Maharashtra, 20-year-old Arman Shaikh was arrested for raping, blackmailing, and forcing a minor girl into Nikah. The incident occurred on March 6, 2026, during the holy month of Ramadan. Police investigations revealed that the accused contacted the victim through social media in 2024. At the time, the girl was a minor, and Arman was approximately 18 years old. It is alleged that Arman sexually exploited the victim repeatedly for the past two years.

When the girl turned 18, Armaan began pressuring her to marry him. Fearing the accused’s blackmail and threats, the girl travelled to Bhiwandi for the wedding, where all the preparations for the wedding ceremony were made by the accused. Everyone, from the Qazi to the witnesses, was present for the ceremony. However, members of a Hindu organisation reached there just in time after getting information from the girl’s family. They rescued the girl safely. The police arrested Armaan Sheikh.

34. Ramadan violence in Lucknow: A Hindu girl converted

A 23-year-old Hindu woman from Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, was lured into a love trap. She was physically exploited and forced to convert to Islam. The incident happened during Ramadan. The victim made serious allegations against a young man named Farheen Khan, who first had physical relations with her under the pretext of marriage and then lied to her that if she performed Nikah first, he would marry her according to Hindu customs. He also forced the victim to sign a Nikahnama.

After the Nikah, instead of taking the Hindu girl to her home, Farheen kept her in a rented room and constantly pressured her to recite the Kalma and convert to Islam. The cruelty reached its peak when the girl became pregnant, and Farheen kicked her in the stomach, causing her to miscarry. When she protested, Farheen threatened to kill her and sell her away.

35. Conversions in Kerala during Ramadan: Hindu women and children pressured to convert to Islam

A 21-year-old Hindu woman in Kerala’s Kozhikode district levelled serious allegations against her husband, Shahul Hameed. The incident happened during the month of Ramadan. The woman said that she was first lured into a love affair by Hameed, who married her according to Hindu rituals at the Guruvayoor temple. After the wedding, the couple lived together, and the woman gave birth to a child.

The woman said there was no talk of conversion before the marriage, but as soon as they began living together, the true nature of Shahul and his family was exposed. She said that shortly after the marriage, she and her child were pressured to convert to Islam. Fearing for her and her child’s safety, the victim approached the police. Thiruvambady police detained Shahul Hameed.

36. Minor forced into ‘nikah’ during Ramadan in Maharashtra

A case of harassment of a 15-year-old minor girl, during the month of Ramadan, came to light from the Shirdi police station area of Ahmednagar district in Maharashtra. A Muslim man named Irfan Shaikh contacted the minor through Instagram and gradually began harassing her. Irfan stalked the Hindu girl on social media and pressured her to marry him.

The investigation revealed that Irfan was not alone in the conspiracy; some of his family members were also involved. Tormented with constant harassment, the minor told everything to her family, who filed a complaint at the police station. Police subsequently arrested the main accused, Irfan Sheikh.

37. Dalit Hindu teenager surrounded by Muslim mob in Chikkamagaluru during Ramadan

On February 26, 2026, during the month of Ramadan, a 17-year-old Dalit Hindu boy was surrounded by a Muslim mob in Malad Town in Chikkamagaluru district, Karnataka. The Hindu boy was riding a bike with his Muslim female friend when a group of Muslims noticed them and stopped them near Jyoti Circle on Market Road. The Islamist mob questioned the teenager about his Muslim friend and intimidated him. The situation calmed down at the time.

However, later in the night, some Muslim men forcibly entered the Dalit boy’s house and abused his entire family. They threatened to kill the boy and his family. Following the incident, police filed an FIR against eight people and detained three of the accused.

38. Stones pelted at a Hindu colony over a colour dispute in Shahjahanpur during Ramadan

In Mau Rasulpur village of the Shahjahanpur district of Uttar Pradesh, communal tensions flared up on Holi. On March 4, 2026, communal conflict erupted after a Hindu youth threw colour on a Muslim man while playing Holi. However, the police arrived at the scene and pacified both sides, but that did not end the conflict. An attack was planned by local Muslims at night in a secret meeting. The next morning, a large mob of Islamists attacked the Hindu colony.

The mob pelted stones at the houses of Hindus, seriously injuring several. Police filed charges under serious sections against around 100 rioters, including Zayed Ali, Shahid Ali, Aqeel Ahmed, Azim, Sohail, Amir, Mahkoo, and Hasrat.

39. Bloody clashes in Rudrapur during Ramadan: Muslim mobs pelted stones and opened fire during Holi celebrations.

Communal violence erupted during the Holi festival in Rudrapur, Udham Singh Nagar district, Uttarakhand. Late on the night of March 5, 2026, as locals in the Bhootbangla area were celebrating Holi with traditional fervour, a Muslim man disrupted the atmosphere. The Muslim man repeatedly tried to force his e-rickshaw through the crowd of Hindus taking part in Holi celebrations. When people present objected to his actions, he used abusive language and left.

Shortly afterwards, the Muslim man came back with a violent mob of dozens of Muslims and attacked unarmed Hindus celebrating Holi. The Islamic mob pelted stones and beat Hindus with sticks. According to eyewitnesses, gunfire was heard during the attack. More than a dozen people were injured in this sudden, well-planned attack.

40. Hindu families attacked over colour dispute in Barabanki during Ramadan

Communal violence broke out during Holi celebrations in the Barabanki district of Uttar Pradesh. On March 4, 2026, the joy of Holi in Tikaria village of Deva police station area turned sour when a minor dispute over playing with colours escalated into a violent clash. Several Hindu families in the village were playing Holi when a group of local Muslims objected and created a ruckus.

A mob of Islamists, armed with sticks, iron rods, and knives, attacked unarmed Hindus. Eleven people were seriously injured. The attackers entered homes and brutally beat Hindu families, targeting anyone who tried to intervene. Upon receiving information about the incident, the police registered an FIR.

41. Murder during Holi feast in Baghpat during Ramadan

On March 4, 2026, during the festival of Holi, a Hindu man named Amrit Sharma was brutally stabbed to death following a minor altercation in Titroda village, Baghpat district, Uttar Pradesh. The incident happened when Amrit left home to attend a Holi feast at the invitation of his friend, Sameer. Amrit went to a chicken shop owned by a man named Sajid in the village, where he got into an argument with some Muslim men present there.

The dispute escalated to the point where Suhail, Anas, Shaukeen, and Chinku, who were present at the shop, attacked Amrit with knives. The attackers stabbed Amrit multiple times in the chest, abdomen, and waist, causing him to bleed profusely and die on the spot. The police filed a murder case against the four named accused.

42. Ramadan rampage in Lakhimpur: Meat thrown into temple

Communal fanaticism and violence in Mohammadpur village, Lakhimpur Kheri district, Uttar Pradesh, forced a Hindu family to flee their ancestral home. The incident occurred during the month of Ramadan on March 4, 2026, when the victim, Pradeep Verma, fled the village with his family, fed up with the oppression of his neighbours. Pradeep said that his neighbour, Ismail Ali, and his family had been mentally and physically abusing him for a long time.

As part of the conspiracy, the accused repeatedly threw pieces of flesh and bones into the local Shiva temple and the well in front of Pradeep’s house. On March 4, 2026, when the temple premises were desecrated, Pradeep strongly objected. When he protested, Ismail, Warish Ali, Tahban Ali, and Ishtiyak, along with the women in their families, attacked Pradeep Verma and brutally beat him. After the incident, Pradeep decided to leave the village with his family.

43. Ramadan riot in Gaya: Stones pelted at several people, including a pregnant Hindu woman, after a child was hit by a ball

On March 5, 2026, during Ramadan, a minor incident in the Belaganj area of Gaya district, Bihar, escalated into a bloody clash when a ball accidentally hit a Muslim man while children were playing. The man strongly objected, sparking an argument. Soon, a large Muslim mob gathered at the spot and indiscriminately pelted stones at Hindus’ homes.

This sudden attack and stone-pelting created panic in the area and caused extensive damage to several houses. Several people were injured in the violence, including a 21-year-old pregnant woman, Lalita Devi. According to locals, the tension in the village had old roots; about a week earlier, a dispute had erupted between the two sides over a Kalash Yatra held during the Akhand Kirtan.

44. Brutality in Varanasi during Ramadan: A Hindu minor drugged and raped at Assi Ghat

A minor Hindu girl was subjected to ‘Love Jihad’ and brutality during the month of Ramadan at the famous Assi Ghat in the religious city of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. The teenager, a resident of Chandauli’s Baburi police station area, had gone to visit Assi Ghat with her brother on March 7, 2026, where she was kidnapped by a man named Nabi Rasool alias Javed. After the kidnapping, Javed called the Hindu girl’s father and not only admitted to having her in his custody, but also said that he would forcibly convert her and marry her.

The entire conspiracy was revealed when the accused fled, leaving the young woman unconscious near her village on the morning of March 8, 2026. The victim recounted her ordeal, stating that she was held captive, drugged, and repeatedly raped. Javed also captured obscene videos and photographs of her to blackmail her. Bhelupur police later arrested the accused.

45. Non-Muslim children are prohibited from eating at a Canadian school during Ramadan

In an attempt to be inclusive, the school administration at Fairview School in Calgary, Canada, made a decision that increased the difficulties of non-Muslim students. During the month of Ramadan, the school, in the name of showing respect to the students observing fast, banned them from eating food in its cafeteria. According to the school’s official email, the lunch area was declared a ‘food-free’ zone. Due to this arbitrary order, the students who were not observing fast also had to remain hungry during lunch time and had to find another place in the bitter cold.

The rule left young children (around 9 years old), studying in grades 4 to 6, hungry. The situation worsened for students in grades 7 to 9, who were completely prohibited from eating in the lunchroom during their one-hour break. Notably, fasting is generally mandatory in Islam from the age of 13 to 14, but the school, in its appeasing move, imposed fasting on even younger non-Muslim children.

46. Terrorist attack in America during Ramadan: Gunfire accompanied by chants of ‘Allahu Akbar’

On March 12, 2026, a former military personnel entered a building at Old Dominion University (ODU) in Virginia, USA, and opened fire indiscriminately. In this horrific incident, which occurred during the month of Ramadan, 36-year-old Mohammed Baylor Jalloh entered the classroom, shouting “Allahu Akbar” and opened fire. Lieutenant Colonel Brandon Shah was tragically killed in the attack, while two others were seriously injured.

Surprisingly, the attacker, Jalloh, was no ordinary criminal. He was a former Army National Guard member convicted in 2016 of supporting the dreaded terrorist organisation ISIS. He was on surveillance after being released early. At the time of his attack, students were training to become military officers. These brave students fearlessly confronted the terrorist and captured him. According to the FBI, the students stabbed Jalloh to death in self-defence.

47. Ramadan carnage in Nigeria: 23 killed in Maiduguri suicide bombing

A deadly suicide attack took place in Maiduguri, Nigeria, during the month of Ramadan. On the night of March 16, 2026, suspected attackers carried out a series of bomb blasts targeting this major city in north-eastern Nigeria. According to the Nigerian police, these suicide blasts killed at least 23 innocent people, while more than 100 people were seriously injured. This attack in the capital of violence-hit Borno state is being considered one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in recent years. No terrorist group officially claimed responsibility for this attack, but some Islamic terrorist groups were suspected.

48. Radicalisation in London during Ramadan: Attack on a Holika Dahan event in Harrow

On March 4, 2026, during the month of Ramadan, in the Harrow area of London, the capital of Britain, when the local Hindu community was celebrating the ‘Holika Dahan‘ with legal permission, the festive atmosphere was turned violent by Islamic fundamentalists. A large number of Hindu families, women and innocent children were participating in this event. According to eyewitnesses, some people from a nearby mosque suddenly disrupted the event. The attackers not only uprooted and threw away the sound system installed there, but also threatened the people participating in the celebration.

Surprisingly, after the initial altercation, the group briefly left but returned shortly after with about 20 other extremists and attacked again. This occurred despite the presence of the local mayor, representatives of Harrow Council, and senior Labour Party figures. Despite the presence of so many VIP figures, the attackers were able to create a ruckus.

49. Al-Qaeda rampages in Burkina Faso during Ramadan: 50+ killings

During the month of Ramadan in the African country of Burkina Faso, the al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group JNIM carried out a horrific massacre, shaking the entire region. On February 27, 2026, in a major attack in the northern areas, the terrorists crossed all limits of barbarity, killing more than 50 soldiers and civilians.

This spate of Jihadist attacks is not new in the country, which has been under the military rule of Ibrahim Traore since September 2022. But this time, the terrorists displayed brutality, not only killing people but also setting grain stores on fire and looting food supplies, threatening starvation for the local population. The terrorist group claimed responsibility for the deadly attack.

50. Terrorist bombings in Moscow during Ramadan: fanatics’ brutality and innocent bloodshed

On February 24, 2026, during Ramadan, in Moscow, the capital of Russia, an ISIS-affiliated terrorist targeted a railway station and blew himself up, killing a police officer on duty on the spot and seriously injuring several others.

The irony is that while the fundamentalists who perpetrate these incidents tout this month as a time of “worship and purity,” the reality on the ground appears to be quite the opposite. The 50 incidents documented in this report are merely a sample, while there may be hundreds more that may never be exposed. The heinous rapes of women and minor girls, the murders of innocents, and the unrest unleashed by shedding the blood of innocent people expose the duplicity of these fundamentalists.

The list of other events is available here.

(The article is a translation of the original article published at OpIndia Hindi.)

No atta, No electricity, and yet Pakistan ranks higher than India in the 2026 World Happiness Report: Read how such international indexes are a farce

Rukma Rathore

19 March, 2026

No atta, No electricity, and yet Pakistan ranks higher than India in the 2026 World Happiness Report: Read how such international indexes are a farce

The World Happiness Report 2026 has been unveiled, identifying the Nordic countries as the happiest globally, with Finland, Iceland and Denmark securing the first three spots. The survey, which is released every year around the United Nations (UN) International Day of Happiness, evaluates over 140 nations, based on how people assess their own lives. Interestingly, Pakistan occupies the 109th spot while India is positioned at 118th.

Notably, the Islamic Republic which has been grappling with a debilitating economy, characterised by long queues for depleting flour reserves that have led to violence, fatalities and injuries, a severe suppression of its alleged democracy with a former prime minister languishing in prison, relentless terror attacks from the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and Baloch rebels along with relentless border altercations with neighbours, is deemed happier than the fastest growing economy in the world. Their situation is increasingly dire as a result of the Middle East tensions.

This is a country that has faced global humiliation after suffering repeated defeats at the hands of India, both on the battlefield and on the cricket fields. Hence, the ranking can only be considered valid if Pakistanis are detached from their grim reality, living in a fantasy world where everything is perfect or if the report itself is flawed.

Of course, their blatant absurdity and impudence, where they win wars on social media and revel in these claims despite the contrasting truth, cannot be overlooked, but the reliability of the methodologies utilised in these surveys also brings forth significant doubts.

The craft of impaired methodology

According to WHR’s official website, the Cantril Ladder, a single life analysis question, serves as the basis for their happiness score, which is a culmination of five terms: well-being, subjective well-being, life evaluation and satisfaction, alongside affect in relation to a person’s feelings or emotional states.

It said that the Gallup World Poll has been gathering the data since 2005, and independent specialists determine this. “The Gallup World Poll collects data throughout the year, taking into account religious observances, weather patterns, pandemics, war, and other local factors,” the publication highlighted.

After the calculation procedure was outlined, it elaborated on the sample size, which should evoke special focus. “The number of people and countries surveyed varies year to year but, in general, more than 100,000 people in 140 countries and territories participate in the Gallup World Poll each year. In most countries, approximately 1,000 people are contacted by telephone or face-to-face each year,” it stated.

The outcome derived from such a small group, particularly in countries like India, which has the largest population in the world, generate skepticism about its authenticity. How can it mirror the voice or reality of more than 1.4 billion citizens and does this not hold true for any other nation as well? Local opinion polls in India cover more people to establish the credibility of their findings.

“To provide a more precise estimate of the average life evaluation in each country, we combine the responses from the last three years. For example, our 2025 rankings are based on combined data from 2022 to 2024. Using a sample size of at least 3,000 reduces random sampling error and allows us to keep countries in the rankings in years when no survey was conducted,” the website declared.

However, the declarations fall short because of the limited number of approached individuals. Additionally, not everyone is interviewed face-to-face and answers are obtained over the phone, making it impossible to confirm the respondent’s identity, their comprehension of the inquiry, or the impact of their surroundings all of which play a key role in these exercises. More importantly, how can an opinion poll be a true indicator of factors that demand extensive calculations and details to measure happiness?

WHR indicated that some countries excel more than others based on six factors, which consist of “having someone to count on, log GDP (Gross Domestic Product) per capita, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity and freedom from corruption.” It goes without saying that India is miles ahead of Pakistan in these sectors, even when the intangible inquiries are disregarded.

India is the 4th largest economy while Pakistan has relied on financial assistance from the International Monetary Fund, the United States and others for decades. Islamabad is ruled by its corrupt army, either directly or through a puppet government of politicians only keen to remain in power and fund personal bank accounts, while New Delhi is a thriving democracy.

The two societies are essentially polar opposites. India leans towards conservatism, while its neighbour is deeply rooted in a strict Islamic ideology, dictating all decisions related to life, which, if resisted, can lead to severe consequences. The liberty to make personal choices is primarily reserved for the upper class, similar to other resources in the country.

The figures of Pakistani citizens travelling to India for treatment of especially complicated diseases underscore the truth about the defective healthcare system in their country. They are obviously destined to have shorter lifespans than Indians in their doomed homeland. Thus, one might wonder: if Pakistan is lagging behind India in these important aspects, how can it be happier?

Why international indexes are a farce

The issue pertains not only to this instance but also to other international indices notorious for their bias against India. Although it is true that the country faces its own set of challenges that it must confront, these partial surveys have historically overlooked its achievements and improvements over the years, relegating it below some of the worst nations in the world.

The government outlined the same on 15th October 2022, when it dismissed the Global Hunger Report 2022, where India was named after Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh, charging that the latter had significant methodological shortcomings and an incorrect estimation of hunger.

“Misinformation seems to be the hallmark of the annually released Global Hunger Index. It is an erroneous measure of hunger and suffers from serious methodological issues. Three out of the four indicators used for the calculation of the index are related to the health of Children and cannot be representative of the entire population. The fourth and most important indicator estimate of the Proportion of Undernourished (PoU) population is based on an opinion poll conducted on a very small sample size of 3000,” it observed.

According to the statement, the centre’s efforts to guarantee food security for the populace, specifically during the Covid pandemic, have been purposefully disregarded by the report, which is likewise detached from facts.

“Taking a one-dimensional view, the report lowers India’s rank based on the estimate of the PoU population for India at 16.3%. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimate is based on the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) Survey Module conducted through Gallop World Poll, which is an opinion poll based on 8 questions with a sample size of 3000 respondents,” it added.

Biased analysts and their dubious reports

American sociologist Salvatore Babones also explored the topic in a paper from last year where he examined how the personal favouritism of the “experts” plays a crucial role in these results.

He wrote, “Clear evidence of this can be seen in the evaluations of Indian democracy published by the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Institute. The V-Dem ratings, first published in 2017, have rapidly become the standard reference point for evaluating the world’s democracies, completely eclipsing all other sources in analytical focus and the number of citations.”

“Although the V-Dem ratings rely on a highly sophisticated statistical methodology, they are ultimately based on expert evaluations. And there is strong circumstantial evidence to suggest that the experts who have been consulted by V-Dem have allowed their subjective preferences to shape evaluations that are meant to be objective,” Babones mentioned.

The institution is financed by the sinister George Soros and classified India as an “electoral autocracy,” lower than Nepal in its previous year’s review of democracies. Babones stated that Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Jamaat-e-Islami Hind were outlawed on the first day of the state of emergency imposed by late Indira Gandhi regime in 1975 until democratic elections were held in 1977. Thousands of their members and all leaders were also thrown behind bars.

“Yet throughout that period, the V-Dem historical database rates civil society repression in India at two points on a scale from 0 (severe) to 4 (none),” he pointed out, sharing the descriptor which alleged that “the government engages in minor legal harassment (detentions, short-term incarceration) to dissuade (civil society organisations) CSOs from acting or expressing themselves.”

The sociologist invoked the V-Dem codebook, which insists, “religiously inspired organisations (if they are engaged in civic or political activities” are part of the civil society outfits and the RSS and JIH and fit within this category. “Clearly and unambiguously, the correct V-Dem coding for India for 1976 should have been one (the government arrests, tries, and imprisons leaders of and participants in oppositional CSOs who have acted lawfully),” he conveyed.

Nevertheless, only one of its five coders provided this precise assessment. “The result is that democracy indices, like those published by V-Dem, inevitably incorporate moral judgments: after all, the judges are human and thus subjective beings,” he aptly concluded which is true for other such indexes as well.

Conclusion

The international indexes undoubtedly have no credibility and are primarily employed as a propaganda asset for preferred nations or governments. They disparage what they disagree with through bogus and misleading methods or outright denial, while bolstering what they support using similar tactics.

This has been particularly true for India since the Modi government took office in 2014. If it is performing exceptionally bad in all other indexes during his tenure, it may very well be among the unhappiest countries to sustain this trend. Who is bothered about trivialities like data and facts, after all?

The Wire and Delhi Riot conspirator Apoorvanand push ‘Muslim Victimhood’ spin on Uttam Nagar lynching: Read how the Left reframes crimes against Hindus to shield Islamists

Shraddha Pandey

19 March, 2026

The Wire and Delhi Riot conspirator Apoorvanand push ‘Muslim Victimhood’ spin on Uttam Nagar lynching: Read how the Left reframes crimes against Hindus to shield Islamists

From the 2002 Godhra carnage, 2020 anti-Hindu Delhi Riots, Pahalgam Islamic terror attack, brutal murder of Udaipur Hindu tailor Kanhaiyalal, to the recent lynching of Tarun Kumar by a Muslim mob in Uttam Nagar, the Islamo-leftist cabal has invariably been portraying reactionary Hindu outrage as a bigger existential threat than the Islamist attacks. In pursuit of whitewashing anti-Hindu crimes of Islamists, Islamo-leftists even resort to vilifying Hindus, overturning the entire victim-perpetrator dynamic. In this vein, leftist rag The Wire has churned out a fresh Muslim victimhood propaganda piece concerning the Tarun murder case.

The op-ed titled, “In Delhi’s Uttam Nagar, Hate is Free, But Muslim Safety Isn’t,” 2020 Delhi Riots accused professor Apoorvanand peddled the Muslim victimhood bogey, even as it is a Hindu family that has lost its son to a Muslim mob instigated by a Muslim woman who could not tolerate Holi colours splashed over her mistakenly.

“The local administration, if we are to believe it, is doing commendable work. It has ensured that the mob that wishes to massacre Muslims has not been allowed to carry out the violence it so openly desires,” The Wire article published on 18th March 2026 reads.

Apoorvanand asks a question: “But one might ask a simpler question: what happens to the members of a community who repeatedly hear slogans that threaten even their graves with desecration?”

Answering this, the Islamist sympathiser says that Hindus coming out in protests and raising aggressive slogans, including those about playing Holi with the blood of Muslims, is being tolerated by the administration because “After all, has not a Hindu died? Would the blood of other Hindus not boil?”

Apoorvanand picked the supposed demand of protesting Hindus that the police withdraw for fifteen minutes and give them a free hand, to portray Hindus as bloodthirsty mobsters baying for Muslim blood over a small matter like the lynching of a Hindu youth by a Muslim mob.

Sar tan se Juda mobs get a pass, but Hindus outraged against the lynching of Tarun Kumar is ‘call for massacre of Muslims’: The Wire projects Muslim perpetrator guilt on Hindu victims

The Wire contributor ideally expected Hindus to demonstrate tolerance, remain ensconced in their houses, and wait for Muslims to find another excuse to lynch them. Coming out on the streets, venting out anger against Islamists, and demanding action against the killers of Tarun Kumar Khatik, is not very good for India’s secular fabric, idea of India, Ganga-Jamuni Tehzeeb, and whatnot.

On one hand, Apoorvanand accuses Delhi Police of ‘cooperating’ with the Hindu protestors, whom he called a “violent mob”, on the other, he also says that the police have “not agreed to the mob’s demand that they withdraw from the scene for fifteen minutes and give the mob a free hand.”

Unlike the Hindu ‘mob’ who rage in anger, may vandalise a few properties, and pressurise the administration to take strict action against the killers of Tarun Kumar, a Muslim mob relies more on its stone-pelting and Sar Tan Se Juda expertise than the police or administration.

The 2022 Nupur Sharma episode serves as a fitting example of this. The ex-BJP leader was hounded by Islamists for simply quoting their religious text, calls for her beheading were given, riots erupted in many parts of the country, and Hindu tailor Kanhaiyalal and a Maharashtra resident, Umesh Kolhe, were brutally killed by Muslim jihadists for expressing online support to Sharma. Yet, from the judiciary to the Islamo-leftist ‘intelligentsia’, everyone blamed Nupur Sharma, essentially telling Hindus that merely quoting their scripture, not even criticising it, is a bigger problem and a justifiable excuse for Muslim mobs to run riots and behead Hindus.

There have been many occasions when Muslim politicians, particularly those from AIMIM, have threatened Hindus by saying that they would show their strength to Hindus if the police were removed for fifteen minutes. The likes of Apoorvanand have no issues then, in fact, they would even come up with justifications like the BJP-RSS have terrified Muslim ‘minorities’ to such an extent they have no option but to grow aggressive in their defence.

In the present case, Islamists, including Umardeen (49) and his son Muzaffar (25), assaulted Tarun Kumar to death after a small argument that started when a child threw a water balloon, which accidentally splashed a woman from the accused’s community. However, The Wire article does not even name the perpetrators behind Tarun Kumar’s brutal lynching.

Apoorvanand claims that Hindus killed Sikhs during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, giving a Hindu vs Sikh spin to a violent political retribution

Ironically, The Wire author shrewdly downplays the communal nature of the lynching of the Hindu youth in Delhi’s Uttam Nagar, invoking the 1984 anti-Sikh riots to rake a communal ‘Hindu mob attacked Sikhs’ narrative, where none existed. Alongside ‘Hindu mobs’, Apoorvanand labelled the police and even the army as “accomplices of violent Hindu mobs” against Muslims.

“In 1984, not only in Delhi but in other parts of India as well, the police allowed Hindus enraged by the assassination of Indira Gandhi to loot and kill Sikhs as much as they wished. In many cases, it assisted the looters and the murderers. In the Hashimpura massacre, army personnel, along with the police, did not merely permit the mob; they themselves killed Muslims. Since Independence, Muslims have had ample experience of how the police often act as accomplices of violent Hindu mobs when violence is directed against them,” Apoorvanand writes.

In the Tarun murder case, it is apparent that the Muslim woman on whom the Holi colour splashed chose not to tolerate an innocent mistake by Hindu children residing in her neighbourhood and unleashed a Jihadi mob on the Hindu youth.

In the 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom, on the contrary, there was no communal angle. It was not Hindus who hit the streets, singling out Sikhs and lynching them. It was Congress workers, who went on to be rewarded by the party leadership, who ran riots to avenge the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. It was not a spontaneous Hindu demonstration of rage against Sikhs, but a Congress-orchestrated massacre.

It is a well-documented fact that many Congress leaders supplied kerosene and other materials to attack and loot Sikhs to avenge Indira Gandhi’s killing. In fact, former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi has even shamelessly justified and trivialised the Congress-orchestrated anti-Sikh pogrom by saying that “When a big tree falls, the earth shakes a bit”.

The 2004 Nanavati Commission report also explicitly found that it was Congress leaders and workers who either helped or incited mobs. There was no role of the BJP-RSS or common Hindus in the violence. In fact, ordinary Hindus and RSS sheltered Sikhs, protecting them from bloodthirsty mobs of Congress workers.

Moreover, it is quite audacious of a known BJP-detractor like Apoorvanand to mention the Hashimpura massacre to suggest that Hindu mobs and police have historically been complicit when it comes to targeting Muslims, since it was not a case of Hindu-police complicity but Congress’s ‘secular’ crime.

On 22nd May 1987, Uttar Pradesh Provincial Armed Constabulary (UP-PAC) entered the communally tense Hashimpura area, took around 50 young Muslim men in a truck to the Upper Ganga Canal and shot them dead while tossing their bodies into the water, killing 42 of them. This brutality was not committed by Hindus but by police officials at the behest of the Congress government.

Giving the massacre a communal colour to vilify Hindus and shift the blame of Congress party’s misdeeds on the Hindus only shows the desperation of the likes of Apoorvanand to pick past incidents and distort facts about them to whitewash present Islamist crimes.

Unsurprisingly, Islamist cheerleader Apoorvanand did not mention incidents wherein police fired at defenceless Hindus. Be it the 1966 Hindu massacre wherein around 3 to 7 lakh Hindus sadhus were attacked in 1966 by the Delhi police at the behest of Indira Gandhi, or the Uttar Pradesh Police’s firing on Hindu karsevaks in 1990 on the orders of Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Apoorvanand also mentioned the 2020 anti-Hindu Delhi Riots and claimed that since ‘violent’ Hindu mobs were allegedly raising “Dilli Police, lathi chalao, hum tumhare saath hain (Delhi Police, raise the stick, we are with you) slogans, the police united with Hindus to thrash Muslims.

“One might pause to ask: at what moment does a public that naturally fears the police begin to feel that the police belong to it?” Apoorvanand asks.

The answer lies in the fact that the victims seek police help, not the perpetrators. Muslim mobs which pelted stones at Hindu houses, on police personnel out there to restore law and order, and at Hindus, would obviously not say “Dilli Police lath chalao”, because they know whose actions deserve the police’s lathis and whose don’t.

However, defying logic and common sense to the extent of even communalising Indian police, which is composed of personnel from all religious backgrounds, is quite normal for Islamo-leftists as long as it contributes to the Muslim victimhood narrative.

It must also be recalled how the entire liberal-secular cabal was giving cover fire for Islamist as they wreaked havoc on the streets of Delhi against Hindus. Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and other Aam Aadmi Party leaders, like Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh, had in December 2019 cast aspersions that Delhi Police, at the behest of the BJP and not the unruly mob protesting against the CAB (now CAA) set some DTC buses on fire in the national capital during the anti-CAA Jamia riots.

The Wire article further laments how Indian Muslims are not even allowed to protest against attacks on Iran, are advised to go to Iran, and police action is taken against them. However, author Apoorvanand makes no mention of how, in most such pro-Khamenei protests, Muslims themselves expressed willingness to go to the Iranian warzone and lay their lives in the cause of avenging Khamenei. Visuals of Burqa-clad Muslim women even accusing their own country’s government of ‘betraying’ Iran also surfaced online. These people having their loyalty for foreign religious leaders over their own country is not problematic for The Wire, but those criticising them are. Here too, Hindu reaction attracts more liberal outrage than Islamist action.

From sympathising with Ajmal Kasab, downplaying Islamic terror attacks, to an active role in the 2020 anti-Hindu Delhi Riots: Is Professor Apoorvanand a borderline Jihadi?

Such blatant Muslim victimhood propaganda coming from someone like Apoorvanand, who has a history of sympathising with 26/11 Mumbai Attack perpetrator Ajmal Kasab, is not surprising. The Delhi University professor, who accuses the police of being complicit in ‘Hindu mob violence’ against Muslims, himself is an accused in the 2020 anti-Hindu Delhi Riots.

One of the main accused in the Delhi riots case – Gulfisha alias Gul, who is arrested under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), had confessed to the Delhi Police, saying that the Delhi University professor Apoorvanand was the mastermind behind the conspiracy to incite riots in Delhi.

The accused had claimed Apoorvanand had prepared a Burqa-clad Khwateen team ahead of the Anti-Hindu Delhi riots. Gulfisha had disclosed that Apoorvanand had issued them an advance heads-up, presaging a riot. Furthermore, Gulfisha also added that Professor Apoorvanand also lavished praises on the students after anti-Hindu riots engulfed the national capital.

She had also said that Professor Apoorvanand had directed them that the Jamia Coordination Committee (JCC) was going to organise a movement at 20-25 places across Delhi, and the purpose of the movement was to portray the Indian government as an oppressive regime that discriminates against Muslims. “This will only happen if riots take place under the guise of the protests,” Gulfisha had quoted Professor Apoorvanand.

The Wire’s Apoorvanand passes off the Muslim mob lynching of Hindu youth Tarun in Delhi’s Uttam Nagar as a “quarrel between two families”

When it comes to pushing the Muslim victimhood bogey, even incidents where Hindus are the victims, Islamo-leftist propagandists do not shy away from weaving a warp and weft of lies. The Wire and Apoorvanand have attempted the same in the Tarun mob lynching case.

Apoorvanand downplayed the Hindu boy’s lynching as a ‘quarrel’ between two neighbouring families. With people from both sides sustaining injuries, with one death on the Hindu side.

“Friends outside India are astonished when they hear all this. They see that a quarrel occurred between two families. There was a fight. One family was Muslim and the other Hindu. People from both sides were injured. One man from the Hindu family was fatally injured. After that, almost all the members of the Muslim family were arrested. Now, surely, there will be an investigation. There will be a trial. The Muslim family, too, has its side of the story. They too were injured. After the police investigation, the court will consider every aspect and deliver its verdict. That, they say, is how things are done everywhere in the world,” Apoorvanand writes.

He also claimed that local Hindus are not outraged over Tarun’s killing and that it is only outsiders who are causing trouble. However, in conversation with OpIndia, local Hindus in Uttam Nagar expressed their anger over the mob lynching of the Hindu youth, with Hindu neighbours even alleging that the attack was pre-planned.

Excerpt taken from the relevant The Wire article.

Before commenting on this blatant whitewashing of a mob lynching as a ‘local dispute’, it would be appropriate to get the facts about the Tarun murder case straight.

During Holi celebrations in Delhi’s Uttam Nagar on Wednesday, 4th March, a 26-year-old man named Tarun Kumar was beaten to death following a dispute sparked by an accidental splash of coloured water from a balloon. The violence erupted in the JJ Colony area of southwest Delhi during the festival.

According to the police and family accounts, an 11-year-old girl from Tarun’s family was playing Holi on her terrace and threw a water balloon, aiming at her father below. The balloon fell on the road and splashed water on a woman from a neighbouring Muslim family, leading to an argument between the two households.

The matter was resolved at first after the Hindu family apologised, but tensions escalated later that evening. When Tarun was returning home on his bike after celebrating Holi with a friend, he stopped by a group of 40-50 people belonging to the Muslim community. He was brutally assaulted with iron rods, bricks, stones, and other objects.

Apoorvanand smartly threw his weight behind his ‘friends from outside India’, to downplay the communal nature of Tarun’s killing, play the ‘Muslims too are victims’ narrative, while this equivalence is absolutely dishonest. The Hindu side has lost a son to an intolerant Muslim mob, while the accused Muslim family faced arrests and partial demolition of its illegal constructions.

In a case of pure victim inversion, there is a point in the article where Apoorvanand laments that ‘terrified’ Muslims are fleeing the locality for Eid amidst Hindu outrage over Tarun Kumar’s killing. “No one stopped them. No one even seemed to think it necessary. The police may well say that this is not their responsibility – that they are leaving voluntarily,” he wrote.

What does Apoorvanand even expect? Local Hindus go around Muslim houses, check on their well-being, apologise for being enraged over the killing of an innocent Hindu man, raise funds for the accused Muslim family to fight the court case against the deceased Hindu youth’s family, or form a ‘human chain’?

Moving ahead, The Wire piece raises some questions that have quite elaborately and in a very violent fashion been answered by the very people it defends and paints as victims.

“But when a Muslim is killed, do neighbouring Muslims begin to demand that Hindu houses be demolished? Does the administration demolish the houses and shops of the accused Hindus? Do Muslim organisations begin to incite violence against Hindus? Does the media launch a campaign of propaganda against Hindus? We know the answer,” The Wire article reads.

From the brutal killings of Hindu tailor Kanhaiyalal in Rajasthan’s Udaipur and Umesh Kohle, a veterinary medical shop owner in Maharashtra’s Amravati by Islamic jihadis for supporting ex-BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma, shooting down of Head Constable Ratan Lal by a Muslim mob in Delhi Chand Bagh during 2020 anti-Hindu riots, brutal murder of IB officer Ankit Sharma by Muslim rioters, Kishan Bharwad, Praveen Nettaru in Karnataka, Ram Gopal Mishra in UP’s Bahraich, to Tarun Kumar in Delhi’s Uttam Nagar, the list is endless.

Islamists attack Hindus using trivial excuses, often store stones and petrol bombs on rooftops, to attack the police when it arrives to arrest Muslim perpetrators, and unlike Hindus, they don’t wait for the administration to demolish Hindu houses, they take the task upon themselves.

Also, Islamist organisations and politicians have consistently been inciting Muslims to run riots. The anti-Hindu mob violence against Hindus in West Bengal during an anti-Waqf protest exemplifies that Islamists do not even need the excuse of any Hindu provocation to attack Hindus. It was seen how AAP leader Amanatullah Khan sought police protection for AAP councillor and Delhi Riots accused Tahir Hussain, who admitted to having the intention of “teaching Hindus a lesson”. In fact, AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan himself was a part of the mob that turned violent. There are Muslim organisations, Islamist individuals, and an entire Islamo-leftist ideological ecosystem that shields, glorifies and even provides legal assistance to Muslim rioters.

But Apoorvanand, who is either living in a cave or has deliberately turned a blind eye to Muslim intolerance of Hindus, fails to see the obvious.

However, such blatant projection of Muslim guilt onto Hindus, coming from The Wire, is not surprising given the leftist rag has a history of peddling anti-Hindu narratives and platforming rioters and anti-national elements like Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam as contributors.

Towards the end of the propaganda piece, Apoorvanand stresses that “propagation of hatred against Muslims is a crime”, but for him, propagation of hatred against Hindus is not. For The Wire, the reactionary anger of Hindus towards Islamists is a ‘crime’, but Muslims killing Hindus driven by their religious intolerance is just a ‘quarrel’ or a ‘local dispute’. This is how it has always been for the Islamo-leftist ecosystem.

Godhra, Pahalgam, Red Fort blast to Tarun mob lynching: Leftists have long been in the business of projecting Muslim guilt on Hindus

Right after the Pakistan-sponsored Islamic terror attack in Pahalgam in April last year, wherein Jihadis singled out Hindus, demanded Kalma recitation, checked Hindu male tourists for circumcision to confirm their religious identity before shooting them dead, there was a natural anger over how Islamic Jihadis are absolutely intolerant of innocent Hindus. Much of this anger was also fuelled by Muslims downplaying the religiosity of the attack and distancing Islam from even at it was a religiously-motivated attack. Back then, the entire left-liberal cabal peddled an Islamophobia bogey, making it a bigger issue than the killing of Hindus for being Hindus.

A similar pattern was seen after the Red Fort blast in November 2025, when many people expressed unwillingness to trust Muslims, give them flats on rent or visit Muslim doctors, after a young Muslim doctor, Umar Un Nabi, carried out a Fidayeen attack to kill kafirs. It was very natural for people with sane minds to be fearful and have reservations about associating with Muslims in any way, since even highly-educated doctors turned out to be self-blowing Jihadis and using their education for planning bioterror attacks.

This, however, is not a new pattern. This has been ongoing since the 2002 Godhra riots. The trigger of the violence, the burning alive of 59 Hindus returning on a train from Ayodhya, by a Muslim mob in a premeditated conspiracy, was almost erased from public memory, and only the reactionary violence was highlighted to establish the narrative that it was Hindus who randomly attacked innocent and defenceless Muslims.

Over the years, many sympathy-evoking and guilt-tripping articles were floated by the Islamo-leftist ecosystem, crying over how Hindus are becoming intolerant and violent in response to Muslim mob violence, Islamic terror attacks, and Islamists mocking Hindu beliefs and traditions.

Take the case of Congress and the extended liberal ecosystem defending Muslim men who ate non-veg biryani and threw chewed bones into the waters during an iftar party on a boat in the holy Ganga River, with the ‘Hindus immerse ashes in Ganga’ fallacy. Basically, Islamists can commit jihadi attacks, mob lynch Hindus, and do things to deliberately offend Hindus, but Hindus must never object. They must tolerate the intolerance of Islamists.

Apoorvanand’s The Wire piece is in continuation of this pattern of leftist propaganda machinery peddling Muslim victimhood bogey right after the Islamist mob commits violence against Hindus.

Islamist sympathiser Apoorvanand concludes his propaganda piece in The Wire with a question: “Eid is only a few days away. Is it honourable for any society that its neighbour should await a festival not with joy but with the fear of violence? What do the Hindus of Uttam Nagar, of Delhi, of India think?”

It would, however, have been better if The Wire and Apoorvanand asked Muslims if it was honourable for any society that its neighbour has lost their son to a brutal Muslim mob attack on the joyous festival of Holi?

We know what the Muslims of Uttam Nagar, of Delhi, of India think, but seeking an answer to this question directly from the very people leftists defend with every fibre of their being, would have their delusions about ‘Hindu-Muslim unity’, ‘peace’, ‘secularism’ and ‘idea of India’ shattered.

2025 Nagpur violence: The Indian Express does what it does best, finds fault with Maharashtra govt for not acting against Hindu victims and prosecuting Muslim rioters

Rukma Rathore

19 March, 2026

2025 Nagpur violence: The Indian Express does what it does best, finds fault with Maharashtra govt for not acting against Hindu victims and prosecuting Muslim rioters

The month of March 2026 marked the first anniversary of the deadly Nagpur riots of 2025. They were prompted by a rumour of blasphemy during an agitation by Hindu activists demanding the removal of the Mughal despot Aurangzeb’s tomb in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. The episode resulted in serious violence, claiming one life and injuring 55 others.

The Muslim mob was involved in stone pelting and arson, showing no regard for the police, including female officers who endured molestation and attempts at disrobing. Afterwards, 13 First Information Reports (FIRs) were registered, and 12 charge sheets have already been submitted.

The Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal leaders were the focus of the FIR that is pending a chargesheet under sections, mandating government approval. It was reported in a 19th March (Thursday) piece, “Nagpur riots, one year on: Chargesheets filed in all FIRs except one naming VHP, Bajrang Dal members” carried by “The Indian Express” which appeared to be offended about the lack of action against Hindus for their “audacity” to agitate within their free and democratic country.

“During the protest, an effigy of Aurangzeb and a representation of his tomb were set on fire,” it stated. However, the Muslim community claimed that a cloth featuring Quranic verses was also burned. “Later, a group of around 60 people gathered outside the Ganeshpeth Police Station, demanding action against VHP and Bajrang Dal members. An FIR was subsequently registered against office-bearers of the two outfits under sections relating to violation of prohibitory orders and restrictions imposed to maintain law and order,” the article added.

It cited police sources and mentioned that the official complaint first identified 9 people, including 8 office-bearers from Nagpur along with Govind Shende, the regional chief of the VHP for Maharashtra and Goa. Afterwards, another name was added to the list. They appeared in court and were released on bail. “Later that evening, violence broke out in reaction to the VHP and Bajrang Dal demonstrations,” IE declared.

Similar to other mainstream media that acts as a spokesperson for jihadis to whitewash their atrocious conduct, the media outlet also shifted the blame for the unrest onto saffron groups rather than those who truly unleashed terror on the streets. Now, should Hindus abstain from sharing their grievances out of fear of provoking such elements? Is the freedom to voice opinions exclusively guaranteed for one community in India?

Chargesheet lays bare the truth

The piece referred to FIR number 0115/2025 and noted that 51 individuals were charged with rioting, arson, damage and attacks on cops by a throng of 500 to 600 persons. 36 more identities were added once the investigation was finished.

“After the investigation was complete, 36 more names were added. A 1,900-page chargesheet was filed in June against the 87, all members of the Muslim community. While over 13 of them are still absconding, police said all the others are currently out on bail. Eleven of them are juveniles,” it informed.

The chargesheet used digital, forensic, and eyewitness evidence to analyse the assault as a “premeditated attack” on police personnel and public property. According to reports, forensic teams discovered a trolley full of stones at the scene, indicating that the pelting was premeditated. Swords, daggers, iron rods, and petrol bombs were carried by the assailants.

The startling revelations themselves illustrate how the culprits were merely biding their time to execute their conspiracy against the Hindu community and they did not spare the authorities. There were clearly meticulous planning and a strong intention behind the incident.

The article conveyed, “Investigators also said that while the violence was premeditated, a rumour had escalated the situation while the VHP-Bajrang Dal protest earlier in the day was the trigger.” This not only reaffirms the earlier statement that anything could serve as an excuse or trigger for the orchestrated chaos but also highlights that Hindus are evidently the scapegoats who can be both accused and subjected to violence simultaneously.

Chargesheet has no reference to “Kalma ki chadar”

“The chargesheet listed 179 prosecution witnesses including police personnel and other officials. While witnesses talked about a green-coloured chadar being burned during the VHP-Bajrang Dal protest, the chargesheet was silent on whether this was indeed a kalma ki chadar, (traditional cloth with proclamation of faith in Islam) as alleged by the Muslim community,” IE stated.

It brings to mind the shocking occurrence in which a woman in Lahore was forced to hide to protect her life because she donned a dress that exhibited the word “halwa” in Arabic calligraphy, which was misinterpreted as Quranic verses by people who announced “Sar tan se juda (behead the blasphemer).” This should be a lesson about the outcome of catering to such fanatics, however, the impact is the opposite for the left-liberal ecosystem in India.

The chargesheet included threats against policemen and Hindus as well as hate slogans uttered during the instance. “The accused were charged under 57 Sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and other laws, including the Explosive Substances Act, 1908, the Arms Act, 1959, and the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, 1984. Among those named was prime accused Fahim Shamim Khan. He spent four months in jail before being granted bail,” the piece emphasised.

“His family home was subsequently demolished by authorities citing illegal construction. In January this year, his wife Alisha was elected corporator to the very municipal body that demolished their house. In February, the Nagpur Bench of the High Court directed the corporation to either reconstruct the house or compensate the family,” it added.

It is quite intriguing to note how judicial processes are employed to exonerate politicians who align with a certain ideology, while others, such as Prime Minister Narendra Modi, consistently encounter unwarranted criticism despite having received a clean chit from the Supreme Court.

“Prosecution lawyers said the chargesheet against the 13 absconding accused was pending, and that once that was filed, the court would proceed to frame the charges and begin the trial,” the media house stressed. Predictably, defence lawyer Adil Sheikh, claimed that it was submitted in a rush and argued, “The individuals listed are not the actual accused, and there is no valid evidence against them.”

FIR on the members of Hindu organisations

“FIR number 0114/2025 dealt with the alleged burning of the green cloth with verses from the Quran. Officials said the chargesheet in this was ready in June but has not been filed yet as government sanction is awaited,” the piece conveyed. It mentioned that police have cited sections 295A and 153A in the chargesheet, which require approval before putting forward in court.

Section 295A addresses intentional and malevolent actions meant to offend religious sentiments and section 153A covers promotion of animosity between religious groups. DCP Zone III Rahul Madne informed that the state recommended some changes, which were implemented and the documents were resubmitted for clearance, while talking to IE.

“The issue of the alleged burning of the kalma ki chadar was examined during the investigation and the accused booked under relevant sections,” he declared. The Nagpur Police recorded 11 additional FIRs in relation to the rioting, four of which originated from the cyber cell. A chargesheet has been prepared each case, comprising one with allegations similar to sedition against the principal perpetrator, Fahim Khan.

“On 23rd March, Irfan Ansari (38), who was reportedly injured as he got caught between the rioters and police, succumbed to his injuries. One of the 11 FIRs was registered in connection with his death, naming around 40 people, including reportedly one person belonging to the Hindu community,” the article stressed. An advocate highlighted, “Many of the accused in the case are the same as in FIR No. 0115/2025.”

The skill of maintaining perpetual victimhood

“A large black sheet covers the front of Mohammad Ebad’s house near Gandhi Gate. Behind it, where a wall once stood, is the portion demolished by civic authorities after the riots. Nearly 24 members of his extended family, including his 96-year-old father and 86-year-old mother, continue to live inside. The house stands neither intact nor demolished — a structure frozen mid-action,” IE dramatically articulated a claim of injustice, insinuating injustice and wrongdoing.

The Bombay High Court later conveyed that the destruction was not in compliance with the law and told the Nagpur Municipal Corporation to provide the family with compensation.

The piece alleged, “Yet a year on, Ebad says relief has still not come” and quoted him contending, “There has been no assessment of the damage. We submitted an affidavit as asked, but no action has been taken. It has been nearly a year, but there has been no relief.” On the other hand, the corporation pointed out that the matter was sub judice.

The response of the administration might be contested or debated within a democratic framework, however, it is undeniable that Muslim radicals were the aggressors while Hindus were the recipients of their hate.

The vulnerability of the Hindus

The piece eventually decided to narrate the pain of the real victims in an apparent effort to seem impartial. “Just a lane away, in Shirke Galli, residents say some of the worst violence of that night unfolded. A 40-year-old caretaker, who asked not to be named, watched from a window as a mob entered the lane and set fire to her moped,” the piece stated.

She recounted, “It had a sticker of God Ganesha on it. Someone in the mob shouted that it belonged to a Hindu and should be burned.” Galli is a cancer patient and single mother who recently lost her father. She voiced that the experience has affected her both mentally and physically.

According to another person named Sunil Peshne, his house was vandalised and his automobile was wrecked. He expressed, “They burned my car. We had given shelter to six police officers during the riots. The mob got angry about that and then targeted our house.” He is awaiting the installation of CCTV cameras in the lane and added, “If such an incident happens again, at least those responsible can be identified.”

Conclusion

The media platform, in a flagrant act of duplicity that can only be afforded by the liberal allies of Islamists, frantically tried to forge a false equivalence between the bloodthirsty Muslim crowd and Hindu protesters calling for the dismantling of Aurangzeb’s tomb. Even if the claims over the burning of a cloth inscribed with religious text were proven true, does this justify a violent reaction rather than pursuing legal avenues?

Additionally, how is it that one community is allowed to wreak havoc in the name of its religious feelings, while another is denied even the basic right to discuss its offended sentiments and is negatively portrayed if it dares to do so? The extremists had stockpiled petrol bombs for the assault. Hindu residences and vehicles were specifically singled out and struck by them. However, IE is upset about the absence of a chargesheet in relation to a FIR involving members of Hindu groups.

There is a recurring pattern where these unscrupulous individuals are first protected under the pretext of a Muslim area, or even an “inflammatory” film. After such incidents, when the truth is disclosed, the next step is to draw a parallel between them and Hindus just to initiate a protest.

Afterwards, the latter is not only demonised, but the government and authorities are also denounced for not treating them as criminals or for exhibiting leniency. The article is no exception to this left-liberal rule and has attempted to do the same subtly.

Matthew VanDyke, arrested by NIA for training and arming terrorists against India, fought wars that ‘Bellingcat’ sold: Read how the mercenary worked closely with the CIA and MI6 front

Divyansh Tiwari

19 March, 2026

Matthew VanDyke, arrested by NIA for training and arming terrorists against India, fought wars that ‘Bellingcat’ sold: Read how the mercenary worked closely with the CIA and MI6 front

The distinction between an independent journalist, a ‘freedom fighter,’ and a Western intelligence asset is not only hazy but deliberately designed to be indistinguishable in the murky world of international espionage. The mask slipped on March 13, 2026. In three airports Kolkata, Lucknow, and Delhi, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) of India carried out a significant counterterrorism operation that resulted in the arrest of six Ukrainian individuals and an American person called Matthew Aaron VanDyke. Their alleged crime? They were using tourist visas to enter India in order to smuggle European drones and train ethnic insurgency groups in Myanmar across the porous borders of Mizoram.

From the 2011 Libyan civil war against Muammar Gaddafi to the battlefields of Syria and Ukraine, VanDyke is a self-identified documentary filmmaker who, to the uninformed eye, appears to be an eccentric thrill seeker. However, a much darker picture becomes apparent when you follow the breadcrumbs of his two-decade career. VanDyke’s career path is tightly linked to the highest levels of Western intelligence collection, particularly due to his established relationship with Eliot Higgins, the founder of Bellingcat, a reportedly open-source intelligence outlet. Opindia uncovers a historical cover-up by following the thread of VanDyke’s recent arrest in India, revealing Bellingcat as a sophisticated front for the CIA and MI6, as the evidence clearly indicates.

The 2013 Syrian civil war

We need to consider the Syrian Civil War in order to comprehend the design of this intelligence system. The use of chemical weapons in Syria dominated the world’s narrative in 2013. The Western consensus, strongly influenced by mainstream media, placed the responsibility completely on Bashar al-Assad’s regime, paving the stage for international military involvement.

Enter Eliot Higgins, who eventually founded Bellingcat in 2014 while establishing his reputation as an armchair analyst under the pseudonym ‘Brown Moses.’ Higgins presented himself as an impartial, neutral open-source data tracker. However, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s and Cryptome-Wikileaks’ released correspondence presents a quite different image of Higgins’ journalistic integrity.

Private communication between Higgins and Matthew VanDyke was exposed in a crucial press release from the Russian foreign ministry and supported by further archival Cryptome-Wikileaks. Under the cover of his military contracting company, Sons of Liberty International (SOLI), VanDyke was actively working with Syrian rebel groups on the ground at the time. According to the letter, VanDyke told Higgins directly that chemical weapons were in the hands of Syrian rebel groups, not simply the Assad regime. VanDyke’s admission was explosive since he was an operator who was closely associated with these anti Assad forces. The clear cut, binary narrative that Washington and London were attempting to present to the public was squarely at odds with the factual intelligence.

What did Eliot Higgins do with this massive revelation? He buried it.

Rather than researching the rebels’ chemical stockpiles, Bellingcat deliberately withheld this critical information. Rather, the outlet consistently released news accusing the Syrian government of chemical attacks, giving the CIA and MI6 the precise ‘open-source’ rationale they required to demand regime change. In order to preserve a pro-Western narrative, Higgins purposefully concealed VanDyke’s intelligence concerning terrorists using chemical weapons.

Bellingcat: The intelligence cut-out masquerading as independent media

Bellingcat presents itself as an ethical, independent group of researchers motivated by a passion of open-source investigation. The organisation fiercely disputes receiving direct funding from national governments, but it skillfully takes advantage of a loophole, they are more than willing to take money from private foundations or international organizations that are funded by state governments.

In actuality, they are publicly adored by Western intelligence services. Former CIA deputy chief of operations Marc Polymeropolous gushed about the agency and acknowledged that ‘we love this’ in a 2020 Foreign Policy story. Former CIA Chief of Station Daniel Hoffman effectively acknowledged that Bellingcat is a handy cutout for the agency. Because Bellingcat is publicly accessible, the US intelligence establishment may utilize their research to launder information and arm twist foreign governments without having to declassify their own state secrets.

The dark money trail

The independent facade completely disintegrates if you follow the money. Government contractors and well-known regime change fronts provide substantial financial support for Bellingcat’s operations:

The Zinc Network: This covert intelligence outlet, which carries out information warfare activities on behalf of the US State Department, USAID, and UK government ministries, gave Bellingcat €160,000.
Chemonics: This Washington-based contractor, known for carrying out espionage and destabilisation operations backed by the US government, gave them €5,000.
Adam Smith International: This company, which receives hundreds of millions from the UK government for dubious overseas operations, gave Bellingcat more than $65,000.
Regime Change Financiers: George Soros’s Open Society Foundation and the CIA-affiliated National Endowment for Democracy (NED) actively support them.

Even its supporters secretly question its legitimacy, despite its prominence as a media darling. Bellingcat is ‘somewhat discredited,’ according to a leaked UK Foreign Office-commissioned analysis, which also noted that the group is ‘willing to produce reports for anyone willing to pay’ and actually publishes false information.

In addition to recruiting ex-spies, Bellingcat’s drive for regime change has taken quite disturbing turns. Eliot Higgins actively promoted an account called ‘Shami Witness’ as a Syria expert while promoting US intelligence narratives in Syria. Later, Shami Witness was exposed as Mehdi Masroor Biswas, a known ISIS recruiter, and found guilty under Indian anti-terror laws.

Bellingcat: CIA/MI6 Laundromat

The Higgins-VanDyke cover up is unmistakable evidence of a functional operational relationship between desk-bound narrative managers and boots on the ground mercenaries, not just a mistake in journalistic judgment. When intelligence services such as the CIA or MI6 are unable to share sensitive information without exposing their sources, or when they need to manufacture approval for a geopolitical maneuver, a laundering mechanism is required.

This is precisely what Bellingcat does. The outlet can somehow get conclusions that consistently support NATO’s strategic goals by employing ‘open source’ intelligence. Funding for Bellingcat often comes from organisations closely associated with Western statecraft, particularly those recognised as the overt arms of Western intelligence.

Eliot Higgins and Matthew VanDyke are two sides of the same intelligence coin. VanDyke operates in conflict areas with complete impunity as a plausible deniability asset. He freely acknowledges that he advanced to the final levels of CIA recruitment before reportedly failing a polygraph. He coordinates the tangible, on-the-ground realities, such as providing drones, funding operations, and arming rebels. In the meantime, Higgins and Bellingcat oversee the informational battlefield, making sure that any unpleasant facts that assets like VanDyke uncover are cleaned up, repressed, or misrepresented in order to further Western objectives.

The proxy war

VanDyke did not come to India for a spiritual retreat. The NIA claims that he and his six Ukrainian aides were training ethnic rebel groups in Myanmar by transporting cutting-edge European drone technology through Mizoram. These rebel groups have strong ties to anti-India groups that are active in the unstable Northeast.

Why would an American mercenary who is closely associated with Ukrainian foreign fighter networks arrive out of nowhere in India’s backyard? The proxy war approach holds the key to the answer. Western intelligence can cause strategic difficulties for emerging India by inciting instability in Myanmar and the northeastern area of India, thereby guaranteeing the region’s reliance on Western intervention.

Conclusion

Matthew VanDyke’s arrest reflects a turning point. It has exposed a complex ecology in which propagandists masquerading as journalists write history and mercenaries pretending to be filmmakers organise mayhem. The key to understanding this link is still the 2013 Cryptome leak. Eliot Higgins made a calculated move to stifle VanDyke’s information regarding chemical weapons used by rebels. The Anglo-American intelligence organisation frequently uses Bellingcat as its public relations branch. As VanDyke sits in an Indian questioning chamber, the illusion of the self-sufficient Western crusader is ultimately demolished. India has taken a firm stance, refusing to serve as a playground for foreign intelligence operatives.

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OpIndiabringing the \'right\' side of India

OpIndiabringing the \'right\' side of India

OpIndiabringing the \'right\' side of India

OpIndiabringing the \'right\' side of India

A Fragmented Battlefield: Alliances and Contradictions

Delimitation: Redrawing the Political Geometry

Leadership and Governance: The Sarma Factor

Polarisation and Identity: The Enduring Faultline

The Optics of Defection: Perception as Reality

An Unsteady Opposition: Arithmetic Without Chemistry

Emotion vs Electoral Behaviour: The Zubeen Factor

The BJP’s Hidden Vulnerability

Conclusion: A Convergence of Advantage

The knack for distributing misleading information and propaganda

Disguised anti-India propaganda framed as disapproval against Modi government

Different accounts, same objectionable conduct

Conclusion

How the Index is actually calculated?

Pakistan: Host, sponsor and the victim of a disease it nurtures itself

Radical Islam as the common denominator

India: rising above regional chaos

Pakistan favourite accusation: ‘India did it’

Conclusion

The Claim

Verdict: False

What Actually Caused the Sudden Rainfall?

How a Harvard Experiment Was Misrepresented

No Evidence Linking Bill Gates to India’s Weather

What “Artificial Rain” Actually Means

Why Hailstones May Not Melt Quickly ?

Can Anyone Control Weather at This Scale?

Conclusion

Middle East: A war-ridden Ramadan and a deepening humanitarian crisis

1. Chaos in Kuwait: Embassy attack and Iran’s ‘Ramadan Offensive’

2. Chaos in Tel Aviv: Iranian ballistic missiles wreak havoc on residential areas

3. Fear in Gulf countries: Iran’s missile attack and attack on sovereignty

3. War on the Borders: Pakistan-Afghanistan Bloody Clash in Ramadan

4. Chaos in Karachi: Pro-Iranian mobs rampage and attack the US consulate

5. Pakistani airstrikes on Khost and Paktika in Afghanistan

6. Ramadan begins and mourning on the border: Pakistani military strikes in Nangarhar-Paktika

7. Chaos in Karnataka, India: Stones pelted from a mosque on the Shivaji Jayanti procession

8. Tension in Jabalpur: Temple Aarti and fundamentalist attack

9. Tension in Hyderabad: Huge uproar in Amberpet over Shivaji Jayanti slogans

10. Horrific incident in Mahbubnagar: Attempted mob lynching of a Hindu youth over a social media post

11. Sensational incident in Bengaluru: Fiancee strangled to death during Ramadan

12. Bloody Holi in Delhi: A young man beaten to death over a minor balloon dispute

13. Bloody Holi clash in Etah: Dalit youth beaten to death on the pretext of paint falling on him

14. Delhi brutality: Innocents brutalised behind the shutters of a halal meat shop

15. Chaos at Raisen Fort: Historic cannon fire, pro-Iran slogans raised

16. Raipur riot: Stone pelting at Marhi Mata Temple and bloody feud

17. Desecration of the Holy Ganga: ‘Biryani party’ on a moving boat in Varanasi, 14 arrested

18. Kidnapping and conversion of a minor Hindu girl in Rampur

19. Identity-based brutality: Mohammad Javed poses as Rahul Patel and blackmails people in Mehsana

20. A Hindu man attacked in his house by a Muslim mob with a hammer for playing the Hanuman Chalisa in Ghaziabad

21. Radicalisation in Hyderabad: Cab driver brutally beaten for ‘Jai Shri Ram’ sticker

22. Communal clash in Kodagu: Hindu youth attacked during religious announcement

23. Chhindwara audacity: A Hindu woman was threatened with rape by a man posing as a ‘Pathan’ on Instagram

24. Dehradun Holi riot: Hindu youth attacked in a dispute over a burst balloon.

25. Riots at Holika Dahan in Rajkot: Stunts and indecency towards women during the puja

26. Religious tradition violated in Rampur: Huge uproar over premature Holika Dahan

27. Bloody Holi in Chandauli: E-rickshaw rider and his friends carried out a deadly attack over colouring

28. Stone pelting in Tonk on the eve of Holi: Violence after namaz left father and daughter bleeding

29. Barbarity in Bangladesh: A Hindu man beheaded and thrown near a brick kiln

30. Holi riot in Munger: Stone pelting in a dispute over applying colours

31. Ujjain riot: Stone pelting and attack on India’s World Cup victory celebrations

32. Ramadan terror in Rajasthan: Hindu family attacked for celebrating Bumrah’s wicket

33. ‘Nikah’ plot in Bhiwandi during Ramadan: Minor raped

34. Ramadan violence in Lucknow: A Hindu girl converted

35. Conversions in Kerala during Ramadan: Hindu women and children pressured to convert to Islam

36. Minor forced into ‘nikah’ during Ramadan in Maharashtra

37. Dalit Hindu teenager surrounded by Muslim mob in Chikkamagaluru during Ramadan

38. Stones pelted at a Hindu colony over a colour dispute in Shahjahanpur during Ramadan

39. Bloody clashes in Rudrapur during Ramadan: Muslim mobs pelted stones and opened fire during Holi celebrations.

40. Hindu families attacked over colour dispute in Barabanki during Ramadan

41. Murder during Holi feast in Baghpat during Ramadan

42. Ramadan rampage in Lakhimpur: Meat thrown into temple

43. Ramadan riot in Gaya: Stones pelted at several people, including a pregnant Hindu woman, after a child was hit by a ball

44. Brutality in Varanasi during Ramadan: A Hindu minor drugged and raped at Assi Ghat

45. Non-Muslim children are prohibited from eating at a Canadian school during Ramadan

46. ​​Terrorist attack in America during Ramadan: Gunfire accompanied by chants of ‘Allahu Akbar’

46. Terrorist attack in America during Ramadan: Gunfire accompanied by chants of ‘Allahu Akbar’