An alarming rise in anti-Muslim hate incidents took place in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack, reveals a report by the Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR). The report, covering the period from 22 April to 8 May 2025, documents 184 hate incidents across India, including 106 wherein the Pahalgam attack allegedly acted as a triggering factor.
Although the report calls this a conservative estimate owing to underreporting and limited documentation, yet at least 316 individuals were affected, either physically or psychologically.
The violence, APCR states, followed clear patterns, which were neither random nor isolated, pointing to a broader atmosphere of growing hostility.
Read all The Quint stories on Pahalgam, Operation Sindoor and the hate crimes since the terror attack here.
Hate on the Rise: What Post-Pahalgam Data Reveals
Uttar Pradesh saw the highest number of incidents (43), followed by Maharashtra (24), Uttarakhand (24), Madhya Pradesh (20), and Delhi (6). Other affected regions included Bihar (6), Telangana (3), West Bengal (9), Haryana (9), Punjab (4), Himachal Pradesh (6), Rajasthan (3), Odisha (1), Assam (1), Jammu and Kashmir (2), Karnataka, and Chandigarh (6).
The report categorised 84 cases as hate speech, 64 as intimidation, 42 as harassment, 39 as assault, 19 as vandalism, 14 as threats, 7 as verbal abuse, and 3 cases as murders. Many incidents fell under multiple categories due to overlapping forms of hate-driven violence.
‘Hate Crimes Don’t Just Occour in Isolation’: APCR
The Quint spoke to a member of the APCR team who pointed out that the Pahalgam attack wasn’t just an isolated trigger for spontaneous acts of violence, but a part of a larger pattern of communal hostility.
“Often, when hate crimes happen, they don’t happen in isolation. There is some context to it. There is some build-up to it,” Tazeen Junaid, APCR member, said.
This story was originally published in thequint.com. Read the full story here.