\n<\/p>\n
Widespread detentions and demolitions of property targeting Muslims in India have provoked concerns that right-wing Hindu nationalists are exploiting last week\u2019s terrorist attack in Kashmir to deepen a campaign of oppression<\/a> against the country\u2019s largest minority group.<\/p>\n Public anger has swelled after 26 people \u2014 all but one of them Hindu tourists \u2014 were killed by militants near the town of Pahalgam in the Indian-administered part of Kashmir, a Muslim-majority region. India has said that Pakistan had a supporting hand in the attack, an accusation that Pakistan denies.<\/p>\n India has appeared to be preparing to strike Pakistan militarily in response to the terrorist attack, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowing to hunt down the terrorists and \u201craze\u201d their safe havens. A Pakistani government minister said on Tuesday that Pakistan believed an Indian strike was imminent.<\/p>\n On Wednesday, Pakistan\u2019s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, urged the United States to press India to de-escalate tensions and \u201cact responsibly,\u201d the state-run PTV said on Wednesday, after Mr. Sharif had a phone call with Secretary of State Marco Rubio.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n So far, India\u2019s central government has been focused on carrying out a series of punitive measures against Pakistan, including threatening to disrupt the flow of cross-border rivers. But officials and right-wing Hindu groups have intensified harassment of Muslims, which they have framed as a drive against illegal migrants.<\/p>\n In several states run by Mr. Modi\u2019s Bharatiya Janata Party, local officials have used the moment to hound what they call \u201cillegal Bangladeshis\u201d and Rohingya, the Muslim minority who have fled Myanmar. Such labels, including \u201cPakistani,\u201d are often used to target Muslim migrants from other parts of India.<\/p>\n The killings of Muslims were reported in two states, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka, with media reports suggesting they were hate crimes.<\/p>\n Inside Kashmir, security forces have arrested hundreds as they seek the perpetrators of the April 22 attack, and they have blown up the homes of people they have accused of having terrorist affiliations. The sweeps, which has included the detention of 2,000 people according to one official, resemble the collective punishments that the authorities have previously carried out after attacks on security forces in Kashmir.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Kashmiris in other states have reported harassment and violence, with right-wing groups filming themselves assaulting Kashmiri roadside salesmen<\/a> and threatening violence if Kashmiris do not leave.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe attack in Pahalgam was horrible but should not become a pretext to engage in reprisals and attacks on minorities, including arbitrary arrests or summary punishments,\u201d said Meenakshi Ganguly, the deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch.<\/p>\n Ms. Ganguly said that \u201cultranationalist broadcast networks and social media users have been inciting hate\u201d that has resulted in violence.<\/p>\n The immediate backlash after the terrorist attack was targeted at Kashmiris and soon spread to a wider anti-Muslim sentiment. That, analysts said, has furthered a demonization of Muslims that Mr. Modi\u2019s party has long employed to unite India\u2019s Hindu majority.<\/p>\n In the days after the attack, Kashmiri students studying in cities around India reported harassment and threats. Kashmir\u2019s top elected official, Omar Abdullah, sent government ministers to different cities to help \u201censure the safety and well-being\u201d of Kashmiris.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In Uttar Pradesh, a Muslim restaurant worker<\/a> was shot dead and another injured on April 23. The attackers, declaring themselves members of a Hindu group, released a video claiming responsibility and saying \u201cI swear on Mother India that I will avenge the 26 with 2,600 of them.\u201d (The state\u2019s police, however, said the killing was related to a dispute over food.)<\/p>\n In Karnataka, another Muslim man was lynched<\/a> for chanting pro-Pakistan slogans, according to local news reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n The most sweeping action has come in Gujarat.<\/p>\n On Monday, the state\u2019s police chief said his officers had arrested 6,500 \u201csuspected Bangladeshi citizens.\u201d Videos of the detention drive showed the men being moved through the streets inside cordons of ropes.<\/p>\n In an indication of how indiscriminate the arrests were, the police chief said that only 450 of the detainees had so far been found to be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh<\/a>.<\/p>\n The government in Gujarat also announced a demolition drive at a Muslim slum near a lake, showing drone footage of bulldozers and dump trucks lined up for an operation that it said involved more than 2,000 police officers. By Tuesday evening, the state\u2019s home minister, Harsh Sanghavi, said that about 2,000 huts had been razed in a drive against \u201cillegal Bangladeshis.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Harsh Mander, a social activist, said that painting Indian Muslims as \u201cBangladeshi\u201d was an old trope used by Mr. Modi\u2019s party.<\/p>\n