WASHINGTON (Kashmir English): Muslims accounted for nearly 93% of identifiable victims injured in hundreds of police shootings linked to alleged cow smuggling or slaughter in India’s BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh (UP) state since 2020, highlighting a stark religious disparity in the use of police force, according to a joint investigation by the Washington-based Centre for the Study of Organised Hate (CSOH) and the Associated Press (AP).
The investigation documented 645 cases involving 772 victims, with nearly 93% of those injured in the 627 cases where identifying information was available being Muslims.
Many victims were shot in the legs and left with lasting injuries, raising serious concerns over the disproportionate impact of the shootings on the Muslim minority under Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
The figures cover incidents publicised by the police themselves and are likely to represent only a portion of the actual cases.
“Known as ‘half encounters,’ these shootings often involve people being shot in the legs, leaving many with lifelong injuries. Across hundreds of encounters, people were shot in strikingly similar locations, often just below the knee,” CSOH said.
According to the investigation, 12,890 suspects were injured in police encounters across Uttar Pradesh between Adityanath’s appointment as chief minister in March 2017 and October 13, 2026.
The state government has not publicly released a religious breakdown of those injured.
Raqib Naik, executive director of CSOH, said the findings raised serious concerns about the treatment of religious minorities by state institutions.
“The evidence collected on hundreds of shootings clearly shows that state institutions, particularly law enforcement, are increasingly being used as vehicles for the persecution of the Muslim minority.
This appears to have evolved into a bureaucratisation of persecution, where policing increasingly seems to be intertwined with majoritarian politics,” he said.
‘Operation Langda’ and police shootings
The practice of shooting suspects in the legs rather than killing them is known locally as “Operation Langda,” or “Operation Lame.”
It has become widespread in Uttar Pradesh since the BJP came to power in the state in 2017 and has repeatedly been used against suspects accused of cow-related offences as well as other crimes.
From the time Adityanath took office in March 2017 through October 13, 2026, police killed 316 suspects in encounters, including 110 Muslims, according to state police data obtained by the AP. During the same period, 12,890 suspects were injured.
Muzaffarnagar recorded the highest number of such encounters, with 110 cases, followed by Meerut with 72, Saharanpur with 41, Moradabad with 37, Jaunpur with 34, Ghaziabad with 27, Mirzapur and Kushinagar with 23 each, and Fatehpur with 20.
According to the investigation, the pattern has raised concerns about whether police are using force to punish suspects before they face trial.
Families left facing hardship
The AP interviewed the families of six Muslim men in Uttar Pradesh who had been shot in the legs by police. All six families spoke on condition of anonymity, citing fear of repercussions. At the time of the interviews, the men were either still in jail or living in hiding.
One woman said her son had supported their extended family by trading buffaloes, which are not covered by cow protection laws. She said his injuries had left him unable to work and forced the family to depend on assistance from others.
“He’s been left lame. His leg has developed a large swelling,” she said. “If someone gives us something, we accept it. That’s how we’re getting by. That poor man can’t go out and work anymore. Whatever people give us, we eat.”
Another woman said her son, who worked as a dairy buffalo trader, had been shot in both knees, leaving the family dependent on small loans to survive.
Recalling her visit to him in hospital, she said blood was oozing from his wounds.
“He’s completely broken,” she said. “He just held our hands. The whole family cried. He cried continuously.”
Experts question pattern of leg injuries
Police statements and social media videos often describe similar circumstances surrounding the shootings: suspects allegedly attempting to flee, officers coming under fire, and police shooting to disable rather than kill them. However, human rights advocates and opposition leaders have questioned whether the injuries are consistent with genuine self-defence.
They have also questioned whether the shootings amount to extrajudicial punishment and disproportionately affect the country’s Muslim minority.
Sandeep Pandey, an activist and opposition political leader in Uttar Pradesh, accused the authorities of using violence outside the normal judicial process.
India involved in state-sponsored terrorism
“Such incidents make a mockery of the law. They sabotage the system,” he told the AP. “It’s state-sponsored violence.”
Dr Mohammad Kaleem Khan, a professor of forensic medicine at Aligarh Muslim University’s Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, also questioned whether the reported injuries were consistent with police accounts.
“It’s not a shot in defence,” Khan told the AP. “It’s a deliberate close shot of a person.”
Activists say similar practices are spreading beyond Uttar Pradesh to other BJP-governed states, including Haryana and Uttarakhand, as well as Bihar and areas surrounding New Delhi.
