The Panel of Independent International Experts (PIIE) has reported that systematic human rights violations against Muslims in India, specifically in Assam, have risen to the extent that they can be classified as apartheid.
Composed of Sonja Biserko, Marzuki Darusman, and Stephen Rapp, the panel is known to have reported on war crimes across the world, with a focus on North Korea, Myanmar, and Rwanda.
In a 2022 report, the PIIE had warned that Muslims in India were at risk of becoming a “persecuted minority.”
In its new report, the panel found evidence of widespread human rights violence against Muslims, amounting to possible international crimes, including persecution, torture, and deportation, specifically in Assam and Uttar Pradesh between 2022 and 2025.
“In both states, the Panel found credible evidence of sustained and systemic discrimination against Muslims, who have been denied equal protection and equal enjoyment of rights, contrary to international human rights law,” the report said.
Himanta Biswa Sarma and Yogi Adityanath of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), leading the two states, are both controversial political figures known to have made inflammatory remarks against the minority community.
In Assam, the panel found that violations extended to arbitrary killings through police encounters, excessive force during evictions, custodial deaths, torture, degrading treatment, and deprivation of nationality, which exposes individuals to statelessness.
The report flagged the state’s failure to protect citizens from mob violence, which is highly prevalent in India, cross-border expulsions, criminalisation of opposing voices, “unlawful” interference with religious freedom, and discriminatory mass removal of voters.
The state saw more than 17,600 Bengali-speaking Muslim families displaced or forcefully evicted, and many killed due to the use of force during eviction drives.
Under the “push-back” expulsions from the state, the CM Himanta announced that 2,000 individuals were expelled in the last three months of 2025.
Assam has a 34 per cent Muslim population with 10.268 million Muslim residents. From encounter killings alone, the total death toll reached 83, while there have been no first information reports registered against the police personnel.
Even before the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) rolled out, 93,021 Assamese were categorised as “D-voters,” also referred to as dubious or doubtful voters, where individuals are unable to prove Indian national identity, with cases pending or already declared foreigners by the Foreigners’ Tribunal.
The tribunals are quasi-judicial bodies operating in Assam with the authority to
determine an individual’s citizenship status under the Foreigners Act and related rules.
As part of the crackdown on child marriage, more than 5,000 individuals were arrested from 2023 onwards, while 300 Muslims were arrested under the Cow Protection Law between June and July, 2025.
The Panel documented 266 unlawful killings through police encounters, out of which 32 per cent of those killed were Muslims in Uttar Pradesh. Over 56 individuals were grievously injured in “half-encounter” killings.
Sambhal violence in November 2024 erupted during a court-ordered Archaeological Survey of India of the Shahi Jama Masjid following claims that the mosque was built on the ruins of a Hindu temple. Police crackdown resulted in the deaths of five Muslims, more than 100 arrests, including minors and lawyers, while many remain incarcerated.
After the “I love Muhammad” incident in September 2025, police detained approximately 4,500 individuals, with 89 people arrested in Bareilly alone and over 285 apprehended across the country.
With the state known to have “Yogi ji’s bulldozer justice,” there were punitive demolitions of at least two dozen Muslim-run shops and 27 homes, not including the places of worship that face bulldozer action, according to the Panel.
“In both states, the remedial framework appears to be largely ineffective for Muslims, particularly in relation to serious violations, and individuals affected have no realistic prospect of securing justice through existing domestic mechanisms,” the report read.
The panel recorded the number of hate speeches delivered by top public officials, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Chief Ministers Himanta Biswa Sarma and Yogi Adityanath.
The report documented 108 instances of hate speech by Adityanath, 85 by Shah, 81 by Modi, and 52 by Sarma.
Assam CM Sarma has, on multiple accounts, made derogatory remarks about the Muslim community while referring to them as “miyas,” which he uses in reference to Bangladeshi “infiltrators.”
These statements appear to be “preparing the ground for ethnic cleansing,” the panel claimed.
“Such rhetoric warrants urgent measures to hold the Chief Minister accountable and stop such violence-inciting speech in the future,” the panel observed, adding that it breaks the country’s legal duty to prevent genocide.
“Let the Congress abuse me as much as they want. My job is to make the Miya people suffer. Whoever can give (them) any trouble in any way should give. In a rickshaw, if the fare is Rs 5, give them Rs 4. Only if they face troubles will they leave Assam,” Sarma said in January this year.
Yogi Adityanath attempted to justify encounter killings in the state while addressing a public gathering in December, 2025.
“The earth should be freed of the burden of people who are burdening the system. If you play with the safety of our daughter, then a ‘Yamaraj’ (Hindu God of death) will be waiting for you at the next crossroads, to cut your ticket to hell, and your path to hell is decided,” he said.
Overall, BJP leaders in India made over 300 such hate speeches, dehumanising Muslims, with Modi referring to Muslims as “infiltrators,” potentially amounting to prohibited hate speech, the report stated.
“The normalisation of anti-Muslim rhetoric and violence also seems to be resulting in a hardening of discriminatory social attitudes, as several recent all-India surveys confirm.”
The panel made recommendations to the Indian and international civil society, the Supreme Court of India, the Human Rights Council, the High Commissioner of a genocide prevention organisation, social media companies, other countries and their governments.
They urged the HRC to mandate an independent fact-finding body to investigate violations against Muslims in India and other organisations to document and report the systematic attacks against the community.
Read the report here.
