By Maktoob
Twenty-five Muslims were killed in India between May and July 2026, including 15 by state actors and 10 by Hindu extremist non-state actors, according to the South Asia Justice Campaign’s India Persecution Tracker. The tracker said the figures put 2026 on course to become the deadliest year for anti-Muslim hate crimes since it began recording such killings in 2022.
According to the tracker, the total death toll in the first seven months of 2026 now stands at 44, including 19 Muslims killed by state actors and 25 by Hindutva assailants.
The report said the period saw state actors continue to deploy the “full, long-documented repertoire of coercion against Muslims”, including “killing them in staged police ‘encounters’ and in custody,” detaining hundreds of people, “bulldozing their homes and places of worship,” and “forcing families through the border fence into Bangladesh at night,” particularly in Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Kashmir and increasingly West Bengal.
At least 23 Muslim religious structures were demolished in less than two months across six states, while more than 1,000 Muslim homes, businesses and religious structures were razed in at least 21 demolition episodes across eight states, taking the total number of such structures demolished in 2026 so far to over 3,000, according to the report, which also noted that the Supreme Court declined to enforce its own demolition safeguards and instead remitted the contempt petitions to the High Courts.
In Kashmir, security forces detained more than 2,500 people within 48 hours of a militant attack in July and demolished two families’ homes with explosives, while across at least six states, police responding to nationwide student protests allegedly selectively arrested Muslims.
Among the 25 Muslims killed, 15 were killed by police and security personnel and 10 by Hindu extremist actors in religiously motivated hate crimes across five states, including an 11-year-old girl and a 16-year-old boy.
This story was originally published in maktoobmedia.com. Read the full story here.