A co-passenger on a train secretly recorded a video of two Hindu men, one young, one elderly, openly glorifying the crackdown on Muslims who participated in the I Love Muhammad protests last year, in the latest instance of brazen Islamophobia on public display in India.

In the video, the young man is heard invoking Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s remarks during the protests, saying, “Baba said that no curfew would be put, nor would riots be allowed. But we will teach them their place in such a way that their seven generations wouldn’t forget.”

He went on to boast about the lathi charge on protesters in Bareilly, adding that Muslims who took to the streets after the assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei were also beaten back. “Why are they rioting here when the war is taking place in Iran?” the man said. He also stated that he does not offer his seat to Muslims on trains.

The remarks echo the rhetoric that Yogi Adityanath deployed at a public event on September 27, 2025, after violence broke out in Bareilly during the I Love Muhammad protests. “Maulana had forgotten who is in power,” the chief minister said, adding that the government’s crackdown would make “future generations think twice before rioting.”

The protests had begun on September 4 when Muslims in Kanpur’s Syed Nagar put up an illuminated board reading “I Love Muhammad” during Eid Milad-un-Nabi celebrations.

Police filed FIRs against over two dozen individuals, triggering protests across Uttar Pradesh and other states. In Bareilly, demonstrators were lathi-charged after Friday prayers on September 26. Rights group APCR documented at least 22 FIRs across India, naming over 2,500 individuals, with at least 89 arrests in Bareilly alone. Authorities also demolished properties of the accused and imposed 48-hour internet shutdowns in the district.