In a narrow lane in the Indian city of Meerut in the state of Uttar Pradesh, Shahabuddin fears increased repression against Muslims if Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party wins the local elections that began this week.

He says that the police killed his brother Alim - along with 22 other Muslims - during the suppression of the protest movement in 2019.

Muslims in India today fear that the authorities will become tougher against them if Yogi Adityanath, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh accused of encouraging violence by local residents against Muslims in the state, and introducing discriminatory laws to marginalize this religious group, is re-elected.

In front of his house, Shahabuddin - who preferred not to reveal his family name for fear of being harmed - says, "We are afraid that the government will kill our brothers and children and kill us if they remain in power, as simply." .

Yogi Adityanath, 49, is a strong Hindu nationalist who gained momentum with Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as prime minister in 2014.

Adityanath has long been a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a right-wing Hindu organization that inspired BJP doctrine.

In Uttar Pradesh, the Indian People's Party has gone to great lengths;

He imposed restrictions on the slaughterhouses of Muslims accused of killing cows, sacred animals in Hinduism, and on loudspeakers used to broadcast the call to prayer.

The Adityanath government passed a law against "love jihad", a phrase coined by Hindu extremists accusing Muslims of seducing Hindu women into marriage and forcing them to convert.

But what really frightens Uttar Pradesh's Muslims - who make up about 20% of the state's roughly 200 million population - is their disdain for the rule of law, which they attribute to the chief minister in the poverty-stricken and densely populated state in the north of the country.

Since the Indian People's Party came to power in 2017, more than 100 crime suspects, most of them Muslims or Dalits (used as "untouchables") have died while "meeting" with the police.

Human rights organizations consider these extrajudicial executions, an accusation of which the government absolves itself.

Adityanath's authority is using colonial-era "sedition" charges and anti-terror laws that allow suspects to be held for six months without charge - according to Adityanath's opponents - to silence dissent.


'Too much injustice'

What the opposition sees as brutality began during the 2019 protests over a citizenship law passed by the Modi government.

After some protests turned violent, Adityanath vowed "revenge".

And riot police raided several cities - especially Muslim neighborhoods in them - and broke into homes, assaulted residents, and destroyed their property, according to witnesses.

Most of the 23 people who died in Uttar Pradesh were reported to have been shot dead, while police assert that no one was killed by firearms.

Shihab El-Din confirms that justice has not yet been achieved, two years after the murder of his brother Alim.

"During the court hearings, my brother Salah al-Din is forced to sit for hours, and then is simply asked to go home with another appointment," he says.

"They think we are weak and do everything they can to suppress us," he continues.

Nafisa Begum explains to Agence France-Presse that her 28-year-old son, Mohsen, also died as a result of the repression.

"There was no indication on that day that there might be shooting here," she says. "It was a normal day, everyone was going about their business."

She continues with a sigh, "There is a lot of injustice (against Muslims, under this government)! There is a lot of injustice!"