The Hidden Pattern: How Radical Networks Target Hindu Women and the Indian State

When the Madhya Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad busted the first Indian module of Hizb-ut-Tahrir (HuT) in May 2023, investigators uncovered something far more sinister than a simple conversion ring. Among the sixteen arrested men—a professor, a gym trainer, a software engineer, and a dentist—five had converted from Hinduism to Islam. These men had married Hindu girls and, after their own conversions, convinced their wives to embrace Islam as well. But conversion was only the beginning. The group's real goal was to overthrow the Indian government and establish a global Islamic caliphate.

A Representation Image of 'Love and Grooming Jihad', (Image: Organiser) | Organiser

The HuT Blueprint: Conversion as a Gateway to Terrorism

The case of Mohammad Salim, formerly Saurabh Rajvaidya, illustrates the playbook. The only son of a retired Ayurveda doctor from Bhopal, Salim was a highly educated M.Pharma degree holder and head of a department at a Hyderabad college. His father recounted how a senior colleague brainwashed him in the early 2000s, with videos of controversial preacher Dr Zakir Naik accelerating the process. By 2010, Salim had stopped wearing rakhis to his sisters, spoken contemptuously of Hindu beliefs, threatened to assault his own father, and was planning to travel to Syria. In 2011, an Islamist preacher from Barabanki formally converted Salim and his wife at a public event in Bhopal.

But Salim was not merely a convert. According to the NIA's investigation, he and his associates allegedly practiced shooting, took combat training in remote jungle areas, and used encrypted apps like Rocket Chat and Threema—the same tools favoured by ISIS—to communicate with foreign handlers. In a chilling escalation, the NIA's November 2025 supplementary chargesheet revealed that accused individuals, acting on a foreign handler's orders, had burned a police officer's car.

Madhya Pradesh's then Home Minister Narottam Mishra outlined the methodology: "They first brainwashed youngsters to change their religion. After changing religion, the same youths convinced their wives also to embrace the same religion. We won't allow such developments in Madhya Pradesh."

A Global Terror Network Banned in 16 Nations

HuT is no fringe group. Founded in Jerusalem in 1953, it operates in over 30 countries and has been banned in 16 nations, including China, Germany, Russia, Pakistan, Turkey, and as of January 2024, the United Kingdom. UK Home Secretary James Cleverly described it as "an anti-Semitic organisation that actively promotes and encourages terrorism." The group's stated aim is the re-establishment of a global caliphate to unite Muslims and implement Sharia law worldwide.

The Agra ISIS-Style Syndicate

In July 2025, Agra Police uncovered an even more sophisticated network under 'Operation Asmita', operating on an "ISIS-style jihadist pattern." The syndicate specifically targeted minor Hindu girls, with suspected funding from Lashkar-e-Taiba routed through the UAE, Canada, London, and the US.

The case came to light when a family reported two missing sisters. The elder sister had first contacted a Kashmiri woman during coaching classes, who convinced her to visit Kashmir in 2021, sparking her conversion. Despite being traced, she disappeared again in March 2025—this time with her nineteen-year-old younger sister. Their parents told India Today that their elder daughter had turned hostile to Hindu beliefs, abandoned family rituals, and started advocating purdah and hijab. The syndicate had allegedly waited until the younger sister turned eighteen to exploit legal loopholes.

Chhangur Baba: 1,500 Women Converted

In July 2025, the Uttar Pradesh ATS unearthed a massive racket allegedly operated by Jalaluddin alias Chhangur Baba. According to police sources, this self-styled godman is accused of converting over 1,500 Hindu women and thousands of other non-Muslims to Islam through coercion and inducement. His network had international links, including Dubai, and his son allegedly maintained a Swiss bank account. Investigators found that crores of rupees were funnelled from abroad through NRE-NRO accounts to bankroll his operations. He reportedly planned to set up Islamic Dawah centres and madrasas to systematically alter the local demographic profile.

Digital Networks and Foreign Funding

Intelligence agencies have uncovered a sophisticated digital infrastructure behind these operations. A secret Telegram channel called "Zaytun Council" with more than 2,500 members reportedly coordinates cross-border conversion drives. NIA probes have uncovered over sixty Telegram and Signal groups, largely run out of Kerala, targeting women for conversion and Islamist propaganda.

The funding trail is equally alarming. One forensic audit of an Axis Bank account in Faizabad showed Rs 80 lakh deposited in a single month, linked to Gulf remittances. In Balrampur, intelligence agencies reported Rs 35 crore channeled through NGOs presenting themselves as education and welfare outfits. The Enforcement Directorate also uncovered Rs 7 crore transferred via UPI IDs linked to dargah networks. Bhopal's Darul Ulum Tazkiya seminary received Rs 18.5 crore in unaccounted remittances from Doha and Sharjah between 2018 and 2024, primarily for preparing recruiters trained to blend into secular university environments.

Three Cases in One Month in Damoh

In June 2023, the city of Damoh in Madhya Pradesh reported three "Love Jihad" cases within a single month. In one case, a man named Waheed Khan used morphed school photographs to blackmail a former classmate into converting and marrying him. In another, a man drugged a woman at a bus stand, assaulted her while she was unconscious, and used intimate videos to blackmail her for eight months. The victim stated in her complaint that she feared he would "kill and chop her into pieces." In the third, a man posed as "Raju" to lure a woman into a relationship in Bengaluru, then shared intimate pictures on social media when she discovered his true identity.

The Kerala Academic Study

A master's thesis from Poland's Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, completed in July 2025, analysed the conversion of Hindu women in Kerala to Islam. The research found that "many women converted as a response to intersecting forms of social suffering such as economic hardship, lower-caste discrimination, and dowry-related violence." The study introduced the concept of the "Gendered Loop of Extremism," a process through which women's vulnerabilities are systematically exploited by extremist networks. It affirmed "a meaningful correlation between the religious conversion of Kerala Hindu women and the influence of extremist ideologies."

The Hadiya Precedent

The pattern is not new. The 2016 case of Akhila, who converted to Islam and changed her name to Hadiya before marrying a Muslim man, reached the Supreme Court. While the Kerala High Court annulled the marriage, calling it a "love jihad" case, the Supreme Court later restored the marriage, affirming Hadiya's right to choose. An academic analysis in the journal ReOrient noted that construing acts of conversion solely through legal-juridical prisms of "religious freedom" and "choice" is "vigorously insufficient."

The Kerala Story Reference

When Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan addressed the HuT bust, he explicitly referenced the controversial film 'The Kerala Story', stating that such incidents "won't be allowed to happen in Madhya Pradesh." The film's premise—however dramatised—appears to have roots in real investigative findings spanning multiple states.

Connecting the Dots

When these cases are examined together, a coherent pattern emerges. Vulnerable young women and men are identified through coaching classes, dating apps, or personal contacts. They are gradually radicalised through exposure to extremist preaching from figures like Zakir Naik, often via YouTube or Telegram. Conversion is positioned not as an end but as a gateway—followed by marriage to operatives, family estrangement, and sometimes deeper involvement in terrorism. Encrypted apps shield coordination, while foreign funding flows from Gulf countries through sham NGOs, dargah networks, and hawala channels.

The MGMM Outlook

The unfolding cases across Madhya Pradesh, Agra, Kerala, and Uttar Pradesh reflect a pattern that goes far beyond isolated incidents, pointing instead to a structured ecosystem where ideological radicalisation, personal relationships, and covert networks intersect. What emerges is a layered process in which vulnerable individuals are gradually drawn in through emotional influence, social pressures, or digital exposure, before being steered toward deeper ideological alignment. Conversion in these instances appears not as a standalone outcome but as a transitional stage that often coincides with detachment from family structures, increased reliance on closed networks, and, in certain cases, exposure to extremist narratives. The repeated presence of encrypted communication platforms, coordinated recruitment strategies, and cross-border linkages suggests a level of organisation that raises broader concerns about internal security and social cohesion.

At the same time, these developments highlight how societal vulnerabilities—ranging from economic distress to identity struggles—can be exploited within a rapidly digitising environment. The convergence of foreign funding channels, online propaganda ecosystems, and local operatives indicates that such networks are adaptive and difficult to trace using conventional methods. When viewed collectively, the incidents suggest the need for a more nuanced understanding that goes beyond legal definitions of consent and conversion, focusing instead on the mechanisms of influence, coercion, and long-term radicalisation. The recurring nature of these patterns across regions underscores the importance of vigilance, institutional response, and deeper societal awareness to address the underlying dynamics at play.

(Sources: NDTV, India Today, India Today, Organiser, Zee News, ABP Live, Telegraph India, ThePrint)