Police in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, have shot and injured hundreds of suspects in alleged cow-smuggling cases since 2020, overwhelmingly targeting Muslims, a report says.
An analysis by the Center for the Study of Organized Hate, a Washington-based think tank, found that Muslims accounted for nearly 93% of suspects shot in cow-smuggling-related incidents among 627 cases in which identifying information was available, the AP reported on Friday.
The AP independently reviewed more than 200 cases, finding a recurring pattern in which police shot suspects in the legs, often below the knee, during encounters.
Police have defended the shootings as self-defense, but the consistent injury patterns and forensic assessments challenge those explanations.
Dr. Mohd Kaleem Khan, a forensic medicine professor at Aligarh Muslim University, said the wounds were inconsistent with the police accounts of suspects fleeing or fighting officers, describing them instead as deliberate close-range shots.
Human rights advocates, opposition leaders and local judges maintain that the shootings amount to extrajudicial punishment, allowing police to injure people before courts determine their guilt and bypassing the legal protections that should govern criminal proceedings.
The practice, known locally as “Operation Lame,” has expanded under Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, a prominent Hindu nationalist and member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.
Cow protection has become a politically charged issue under India’s Hindu nationalist leadership, with Muslims working in cattle trading and transportation facing heightened scrutiny under laws restricting cow slaughter and related activities.
The disproportionate number of Muslim victims has intensified allegations that police enforcement is being used to marginalize the religious minority, which makes up roughly one-fifth of Uttar Pradesh’s population.
The Allahabad High Court has warned that shooting suspects in the legs has seemingly become routine and described such practices as incompatible with the rule of law.
The shootings have also devastated families, with relatives of six injured Muslim men telling the AP that their loved ones could no longer work and that households had become dependent on donations and loans.
Since Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in 2014, Muslims in India have faced growing concerns over religious discrimination, hate speech and attacks by Hindu nationalist groups.
Human rights organizations have criticized inflammatory rhetoric by some BJP leaders, as well as the authorities’ failure to adequately address anti-Muslim violence. Restrictions on cow slaughter and cattle trading have also contributed to tensions, with Muslim cattle traders and transporters facing harassment and, in some cases, vigilante attacks.
A report by the Center for the Study of Organized Hate documented 1,318 hate-speech events targeting Muslims and Christians in India in 2025, a 13% increase from 2024; 98% of the recorded events targeted Muslims, either exclusively or alongside Christians.
Muslim communities have also been affected by policies and enforcement practices that rights groups describe as discriminatory, including the demolition of homes and businesses, arrests of activists, and laws governing religious conversion and interfaith relationships.
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