Protest against Hapur lynching in New Delhi. (PTI file photo)

MEERUT: According to human rights advocacy group Amnesty International , in the first six months of 2018, 100 hate crimes have been committed against people from marginalised groups including dalits, Adivasis, members of racial or religious minority groups and transgender people across the country. Uttar Pradesh, with 18 such crimes, had the highest number among Indian states, followed by Gujarat with 13 cases, Rajasthan (eight) and Tamil Nadu and Bihar with seven cases each.

The report comes during the ongoing investigation into a lynching in Hapur, where a local man named Mohammad Qasim was assaulted by a mob over suspicion of cow slaughter in June. The lone survivor, 62-year-old Samaydeen has contested the initial police claim that the lynching was triggered by road rage instead of cow slaughter rumours.

The human rights’ group began documenting hate crimes in the country after Mohammad Akhlaq was killed in Dadri, UP for allegedly storing beef at home in September 2015. Since then, 603 hate crimes have been recorded in an interactive website, ‘Halt the Hate’, run by Amnesty.

The Amnesty report stated that in the first six months of 2018, a total of 67 hate crimes against dalits and 22 against Muslims were recorded across the country.

Cow-related violence and honour killings were among the most common causes of the hate crimes, according to data compiled by Amnesty. In UP, the western part of the state has been the epicentre of such incidents, with violence triggered on caste and religious faultlines. In 2018, TOI has already reported on six hate crimes against dalits in Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Saharanpur and Bulandshahr.

In Meerut’s Shobhapur village, a dalit youth was allegedly shot dead by Gujjars in the aftermath of violence during the dalit agitation on April 2. The incident escalated tension between the two communities.

In Baghpat, a dalit youth was allegedly brutally assaulted by Gujjars after a panchayat ordered action against the former’s community to avenge elopement of a Gujjar girl with a dalit youth in May. A few days later, the youth died at a medical facility in Meerut.

Recently, a 44-year-old man was summoned by a local panchayat in Bulandshahr’s Sonda Habibpur village. He was assaulted and forced to lick his own spit after his son married a woman from another community.

“Hate crimes are different from other crimes because there is an underlying discriminatory motive behind the former. However, the law – with some exceptions – does not recognise hate crimes as separate offences. This means that even today, the extent of hate crime in India is unknown. Police need to unmask any potentially discriminatory motives during investigation and duly record them,” said Aakar Patel, executive director, Amnesty International India.

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