Hyderabad: Religious bias trigger hate crimes in 2018

Hyderabad: The year 2018, saw the highest number of hate crimes triggered by religious bias in a decade. Records show that minorities were at the receiving end in 75 per cent of the attacks.  

A collation of incidents revealed, 30 people were killed, 93 were attacked and 305 were injured, the most since 2009. Telangana state reported four incidents, which is the highest in South India. Uttar Pradesh topped the chart followed by Bihar. 

The data was compiled by Hate Crime Watch. The National Bureau Crime Board (NCRB), the Central agency that records crimes on an annual basis, has yet not issued its yearly report. 

Hate crime are different from other crimes because there is an underlying discriminatory motive behind the former. 

However, the law does not recognise hate crimes as separate offences. This means that even today, the extent of hate crimes is unknown. 

Of the 93  attacks in 2018 in which the religion of the alleged perpetrators was known, the data showed that 45 attacks, or 71 per cent, were carried out by Hindus while Muslims were the suspected attackers in 17 incidents (27 per cent).

According to fact-checker, the organisation who carried out the analysis, interfaith relationships were the pretext of attack in 17 per cent of the cases, and 15 per cent of the attacks were justified by the perpetrators as a means to protect cows.