{"id":644,"date":"2026-02-09T11:44:43","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T11:44:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailypremiumbulletin.com\/?p=644"},"modified":"2026-02-09T11:44:43","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T11:44:43","slug":"ai-video-of-assam-cm-sarma-shooting-muslims-causes-outrage-in-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailypremiumbulletin.com\/?p=644","title":{"rendered":"AI video of Assam CM Sarma shooting Muslims causes outrage in India"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/main><\/p>\n

AI video of Assam CM Sarma shooting Muslims causes outrage in India<\/h1>\n

Video titled \u2018point blank shot\u2019 featuring Himanta Biswa Sarma deleted by Hindu nationalist BJP party\u2019s Assam unit after backlash.<\/em><\/p>\n

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma [File: Anupam Nath\/AP Photo]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/a>By <\/span>Al Jazeera Staff<\/a>Published On 9 Feb 2026<\/span>9 Feb 2026<\/span><\/p>\n

Save<\/p>\n

\n

A now-deleted video generated by artificial intelligence and shared by India\u2019s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Assam state, home to more than 12 million Muslims, has been widely condemned after it showed the northeastern state\u2019s chief minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma, appearing to shoot at Muslims.<\/p>\n

The 17-second clip shared on X and titled \u201cpoint blank shot\u201d circulated widely on social media on Saturday before being removed after public outrage and criticism from opposition politicians.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n

list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/p>\n

The video appeared to combine original footage of Sarma handling a rifle and AI-generated images showing him shooting at two Muslim men under the title \u201cNo Mercy\u201d. Sarma has been accused of running xenophobic campaigns against Muslims, who form one-third of the state\u2019s population<\/a>, before state elections expected in March or April.<\/p>\n

The video also included images of Sarma dressed as a cowboy and pointing a pistol, overlaid with text such as \u201cForeigner free Assam\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Assam BJP unit accused of producing anti-Muslim rhetoric has not officially commented.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no comment. It has been deleted. There is nothing to say,\u201d Ranjib Kumar Sarma, a local BJP leader in Assam, told Indian Express.<\/p>\n

The chief minister has recently escalated his rhetoric against Muslims, particularly against Muslims of Bengali origin in Assam, linking them to crime and demographic change.<\/p>\n

Last month, he called on Assam residents to give \u201cMiya Muslims\u201d, a derogatory term for Bengali-speaking Muslims, a \u201chard time\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven small acts, such as paying less fare in a rickshaw. If they ask 5 rupees [6 United States cents], give 4 rupees [4 cents]. They will leave Assam only if they face hardships,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Advertisement <\/span><\/p>\n

Only the federally run territories of India-administered Kashmir in the north and the Lakshadweep islands in the Arabian Sea have a higher Muslim percentage of the population than Assam.<\/p>\n

\u2018No basic decency\u2019<\/h2>\n

Aman Wadud, an Assam-based leader from the opposition Indian National Congress party, called the video \u201cdeeply disturbing\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cBJP has proven time and again that it has absolutely no regard for law or even basic decency,\u201d he told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis also shows desperation of BJP. They are losing the plot in Assam. The wise people of Assam are ready to defeat this politics of hatred and division,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Congress said the video \u201camounts to a call to mass violence and genocide\u201d.<\/p>\n

All India Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra urged India\u2019s Supreme and High Court judges to take notice of the Sarma video, asking in a post on X \u201cwhat more this man needs to do\u201d for the judiciary to \u201cwake up\u201d.<\/p>\n

In September, the BJP in Assam posted another AI-generated video titled \u201cAssam without BJP\u201d, depicting the state taken over by Muslims, whom it paints as \u201cillegal immigrants\u201d.<\/p>\n

The rise in anti-Muslim bigotry in Assam comes against the backdrop of a BJP culture war against Muslims, who make up 14 per cent of India\u2019s 1.4 billion people.<\/p>\n

According to Hindu-majoritarian ideology, which guides the ruling BJP, Muslims are considered<\/a> outsiders. Muslim asylum seekers and refugees from Bangladesh and Myanmar are in particular targeted as \u201cinfiltrators\u201d. India also amended its citizenship laws in 2019, making faith a basis for acquiring citizenship in the officially secular nation. Muslims were excluded from applying.<\/p>\n

Since the election of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, dozens of Muslims have been lynched on suspicion of consuming beef or transporting cattle, which are considered sacred by some Hindus. Muslims have faced discrimination in employment and education for decades, but under the BJP government, their plight has worsened as Hindu nationalist parties have weaponised laws against Muslims.<\/p>\n

Human rights groups said hate speech and violence<\/a> against Muslims have exploded in recent years.<\/p>\n

Last month, research by the India Hate Lab, a project of the Washington, DC-based Center for the Study of Organized Hate, found that the country had recorded 1,318 hate speech events in 2025, an average of more than three per day.<\/p>\n

At least 98 per cent of the events targeted Muslims and explicitly so in 1,156 cases, the report added.<\/p>\n

Modi himself has been accused of using inflammatory language about Muslims to generate fear among Hindu voters. Human Rights Watch said in a report<\/a> published in August 2024 that Modi and several party leaders \u201cfrequently used hate speech against Muslims and other minorities, inciting discrimination, hostility, and violence\u201d during campaigning for the 2024 general election.<\/p>\n

Advertisement <\/span><\/p>\n

Modi was denied a US visa<\/a> for links to a 2002 anti-Muslim massacre in the state of Gujarat while he was serving as its chief minister. More than 1,000 people were killed, most of them Muslims, in some of the worst anti-Muslim violence since India\u2019s independence from British colonial rule in 1947. Since becoming prime minister, however, Modi has visited the US numerous times.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AI video of Assam CM Sarma shooting Muslims causes outrage in India Video titled \u2018point blank shot\u2019 featuring Himanta Biswa Sarma deleted by Hindu nationalist BJP party\u2019s Assam unit after backlash. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma [File: Anupam Nath\/AP Photo] By Al Jazeera StaffPublished On 9 Feb 20269 Feb 2026 Save A now-deleted video […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":645,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailypremiumbulletin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailypremiumbulletin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailypremiumbulletin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailypremiumbulletin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailypremiumbulletin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailypremiumbulletin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailypremiumbulletin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailypremiumbulletin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailypremiumbulletin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailypremiumbulletin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}