2013 Muzaffarnagar riots
| 2013 Muzaffarnagar Riots | ||||
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| Part of Religious violence in India | ||||
Location of riots | ||||
| Date | 27 August 2013 – 17 September 2013 | |||
| Location | Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, India 29°28′20″N 77°42′32″E / 29.472332°N 77.708874°E | |||
| Caused by | Altercation between Hindu Jats and Muslims at Kawal village, Muzaffarnagar district on 27 August | |||
| Methods | Killing, Arson, Looting | |||
| Parties | ||||
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| Casualties and losses | ||||
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The 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots were religious clashes between the Hindu Jats and Muslims in the Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh, India. A total of 162 died in the clashes, 150 of which were Muslims, another 730 were injured and more than 50,000 Muslim people were displaced. By date 17 September, the curfew was lifted from all riot affected areas and the army was also withdrawn.
The riot has been described as "the worst violence in Uttar Pradesh in recent history", with the army, as a result, being deployed in the state for the first time in last 20 years. The Supreme Court of India, while hearing petitions in relation to the riots, held the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party prima facie guilty of negligence in preventing the violence and ordered it to immediately arrest all those accused irrespective of their political affiliation. The Court also blamed the Central government for its failure to provide intelligence inputs to the Samajwadi Party-governed state government in time to help sound alerts. In 2021, a local court allowed the Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government to withdraw a case of inciting violence against 12 BJP leaders involved in the riots.
In 2022, BJP MLA Vikram Singh Saini along with 11 others were sentenced to two years imprisonment by a special court which convicted them of rioting and other offences.