In Uttar Pradesh, India's largest state, the focus is on the state's 40 million Muslim population when it comes to voting for the state assembly. The state is one of the most politically, religiously, economically and socially divided states.
The BBC's Kirti Dubey looks at the case of four Muslims who were tortured on the basis of religious hatred in the government of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
Qamar Ali, a resident of the state, said wiping his tears. He had a handkerchief on his shoulder. They put the same handkerchief in his mouth and killed him.
She said her husband, Ali Anwar, was allegedly killed by a mob of Hindus in March 2019 when he tried to damage an Islamic religious building near his home in Sonbhadar district by an angry mob of Hindus. Were preventing
Police arrested 18 people involved in the incident, including some boys under the age of 18, but all of them were released on bail a few months later. According to Qamar Ali, his family is still waiting for justice.
Since 2014, when Narendra Modi's extremist Bharatiya Janata Party won the elections for the first time, reports of mass killings and hate speech against Muslims have become commonplace in the media and newspapers.
Critics claim that most of the perpetrators are supporters and activists of the ruling party and that the provocative anti-Muslim rhetoric of BJP leaders encourages these elements. The Bharatiya Janata Party denies the allegations, but ruling party leaders rarely issue statements condemning the incidents.
Prime Minister Modi was also sharply criticized when an elderly Muslim man was killed by a mob in 2015 for keeping meat and Narendra Modi remained completely silent.
Instead of condemning the mob's killing several weeks after the incident, Narendra Modi said in a statement that Hindus and Muslims should fight poverty, not each other. He also criticized the 'Gao Rakshak', a Hindu group that protects cows.
In 2015, there was a wave of concern around the world over this murder, but in the years that followed, there have been numerous such incidents against Muslims.
Yogi Adityanath, a saffron-clad religious saffron-clad yogi who often makes provocative speeches against Muslims, has seen some of the worst incidents in UP since he took over as chief minister in 2017.
It is difficult to say how many people are killed or victimized by religious hatred each year. In 2017, the Crime Records Bureau of India collected data but did not publish it.
In the four incidents investigated by the BBC, the families of the victims accused the police of indifference and said they were not satisfied with the progress of the cases.
The accused are out on bail in three cases while no arrest has been made in the fourth case despite the lapse of more than seven months.
Prashant Kumar, Additional Director General of Law and Order in the state, has denied allegations of police indifference and incompetence.
Qamar Ali, Anwar Ali's wife, says she is still waiting for justice
"People have no right to kill anyone and if such incidents take place, strict action will be taken against the culprits," he said.
But Mohammad Asad Hayat, a criminal lawyer representing victims of hate crimes, has accused the police of being reluctant to investigate such cases to avoid the repercussions of influential people.
"The lynching is under a political agenda," he said.
Meanwhile, the families of the victims say that they are living in a world of fear, and some have left their homes.
Troubled family
Ain-ul-Haq, Anwar Ali's eldest son, alleged that the arrival of local school teacher Ravinder Kharwar had sparked sectarian tensions in his village Parsui.
He says he incited young Hindu men to gather and shout slogans against Imam Chowk (where a religious structure stood).
Mr Haq says the group damaged it twice, but both times the police intervened and talked about rebuilding it.
According to a case registered by the police, on March 20, 2019, Anwar Ali stopped the group from destroying the structure but he attacked the angry mob. His son said Ali had been killed. According to the postmortem report, Ali was killed by a sharp instrument.
Kharwar's name is listed as the main accused in the police investigation. They raided his home but could not find him, after which he was declared a fugitive.
Kharwar denies involvement in the killings.
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