King’s College London Report Exposes Uttar Pradesh and Assam: India’s State-Sponsored War on Muslims

The facade of the world’s largest democracy is crumbling. As the Transnational Law Clinic at King’s College London prepares to launch its explosive new report, Alleged Violations of International Law Against Muslims in Uttar Pradesh and Assam, India (2022–2025), the international community is finally being forced to confront a grim, state-sanctioned reality. This report acts as a damning indictment of a system that has weaponized law, police power, and bureaucratic machinery to target, marginalize, and terrorize India’s Muslim minority. This is not a collection of isolated accidents; it is a calculated, structural project of exclusion.

The Massive Scale of the Targeted Population

To understand the severity of this crisis, one must look at the numbers. According to Census 2011 data, Muslims made up 19.26 percent of the population in Uttar Pradesh, totaling roughly 38.48 million people. In Assam, the community accounts for 34.22 percent, or about 10.68 million people. Across India, Muslims represent 14.2 percent of the population. These are not small, fringe groups; they are tens of millions of citizens whose lives, livelihoods, and basic safety are being systematically undermined by the very state institutions meant to protect them.

Uttar Pradesh: The Brutal Reality of Police Encounters

In Uttar Pradesh, the rule of law has been replaced by the law of the gun. The state has normalized the “police encounter” as a tool of governance. Official data confirms that since March 2017, the Uttar Pradesh Police have carried out over 15,000 encounters. These violent actions have resulted in 259 deaths and left more than 10,000 people injured.

The year 2025 saw the highest annual death toll yet, with police killing 48 alleged criminals. Most chillingly, an analysis of official figures reveals that 83 of the 259 people killed had Muslim names, representing 32 percent of all encounter deaths. In a state where Muslims make up less than one-fifth of the population, this massive statistical gap is proof of targeted violence and a blatant disregard for human life.

Bulldozer Justice: State-Sponsored Destruction

If the police encounter is the weapon of the individual, the “bulldozer” is the weapon of the community. In November 2024, the Supreme Court of India officially ruled that homes cannot be demolished without following due process. However, the practice of punitive destruction continues to be a favorite tactic of the state. Amnesty International analyzed 128 demolitions across five states between April and June 2022, finding that at least 617 people were left homeless. These demolitions frequently target Muslim-concentration areas, functioning as a form of collective punishment designed to instill fear and strip people of their most basic security: a roof over their heads.

Assam: The Bureaucratic Weaponization of Citizenship

Assam represents a different but equally dangerous method of exclusion: the weaponization of citizenship. The final National Register of Citizens (NRC) from August 2019 excluded 1,906,657 people out of more than 33 million applicants. Even with 31.1 million people included, the state continues to use citizenship as a tool of psychological warfare against Bengali-speaking Muslims. The human cost is visible in the Matia transit camp, where authorities confirmed that 270 people were detained as of early 2025, even though the camp has a capacity of 3,000. When citizenship becomes a “moving target,” the state creates a permanent class of vulnerable, uncertain people living in constant fear.

Forced Evictions: Life on Unstable Ground

Land policy in Assam has been weaponized to ruin the lives of the poor. In September 2021, an eviction drive in Darrang district left two people dead and displaced up to 1,300 families. In June 2025, a drive in Goalpara affected 667 families, followed by another operation in the same year that demolished the homes of 580 more Bengali-speaking Muslim families. Governments label these as “anti-encroachment” efforts, but the repeated, brutal targeting of the same minority communities reveals a clear, discriminatory intent.

A Culture of Hate and State Impunity

The physical violence is fueled by a terrifying surge in hate speech. The India Hate Lab (IHL) documented 1,165 verified in-person hate speech events in 2024 across 20 states, two union territories, and Delhi. This is a 74.4 percent increase from the 668 events in 2023. Remarkably, 98.5 percent of these 2024 incidents targeted Muslims. With an average of three hate speech events every single day, the state has allowed a culture where dehumanizing Muslims is now considered normal.

The Global Verdict on Indian Governance

The world is finally taking notice. For the sixth consecutive year, the USCIRF 2025 report recommended designating India as a “Country of Particular Concern.” Additionally, Human Rights Watch reported that in just the first nine months of 2023, India’s National Human Rights Commission recorded 126 deaths in police custody, 1,673 deaths in judicial custody, and 55 alleged extrajudicial killings. These are not just numbers; they are clear indicators of a state that has abandoned accountability.

The evidence provided by the report from King’s College London and other human rights organizations is impossible to ignore. India is rapidly descending into a system where minorities are treated as second-class citizens, and where the state operates with total impunity. This is a defining moment for international justice: will the world hold India accountable, or will it remain silent as these fundamental violations continue?