He “wanted to establish Islam’s superiority as endorsed by the terrorist outift ISIS” because he “was influenced by the notion of global jihad” that “those who don’t believe in Islam are idol worshippers or kafirs” and so “should be killed and sent to hell”.
This is the Uttar Pradesh police’s summary, contained in a chargesheet filed on August 26, of what motivated Ahmad Murtaza Abbasi to attack security personnel at Gorakhpur’s Gorakhnath temple last April. Abbasi himself, in a video that surfaced a few days after the attack, purportedly claimed that he was driven by anger against the “harassment of Muslims” for protesting against the new citizenship law and the prohibition on Muslims wearing the hijab in Karnataka’s schools.
