A baby bottle, a squeaky toy and a schoolbag are among items that have surfaced from a mass grave site in Sri Lanka’s formerly war-torn northern region, along with 141 human skeletons including some that appear to be of children of different ages.

A couple who moved from Los Angeles to Utah about 45 years ago to run a radio station are now operating the only Hindu temple in a predominantly Mormon town.

A doctor says at least 17 people were killed and many more injured in a stampede at the world’s largest religious gathering as millions of pilgrims rushed to dip in sacred waters during the Maha Kumbh festival in northern India.

A court in southeastern Bangladesh has rejected a plea for bail by a jailed Hindu leader who led large rallies in the Muslim-majority country demanding better security for minority groups.

A prominent Bangladeshi Hindu leader who has been leading rallies demanding security for Hindus in the overwhelmingly Muslim nation has been ordered detained on charges of sedition.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist party is headed for a victory in state elections in politically significant Maharashtra while the opposition won mineral-rich Jharkhand state.

For the first time, New York City’s public school students have the day off to mark the holiday of Diwali, celebrated in India and among the global Indian diaspora as the victory of light over darkness.

The Hindu Festival of Lights known as Diwali falls on Halloween this year. For the growing Hindu-American population in Texas, the holiday is considered India's biggest and most important celebration. Shubhra Ramineni of Spice Girl Kitchen threw us a Diwali celebration and shared how thousands of families plan to celebrate.

Indians are celebrating the Hindu festival of lights, Diwali, by symbolically lighting a record 2.51 million clay oil lamps at dusk on the banks of the river Saryu in a city they believe to be the birthplace of the deity Lord Ram.

Minority Hindus in the Muslim-majority Bangladesh are celebrating their largest religious festival of Durga Puja, but fear and worries grip them following reports of violence.

Ever since Bangladesh's prime minister was forced to step down and fled the country, her supporters and associates have faced retaliatory attacks.

More than 100 people have been killed in a stampede in northern India following a Hindu religious gathering.

Millions of Indians across 49 constituencies are casting ballots as the country’s six-week-long election enters its final stages.

The political power of Muslims is declining in the world's largest democracy.

Millions of Indians across 93 constituencies are voting as Prime Minister Narendra Modi has mounted an increasingly shrill election campaign, ramping up polarizing rhetoric against Muslims.

India’s main opposition party has accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of using hate speech after he called Muslims “infiltrators.”.

Millions of Indians are voting in a six-week election that’s a referendum on Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

India has implemented a citizenship law that excludes migrants who are Muslims, a minority community whose concerns have heightened under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has announced rules to implement a 2019 citizenship law that excludes Muslims, weeks before the Hindu nationalist leader seeks a third term in office.

Diwali is the most important festival of the year in India and for Hindus in particular.

A lockdown has been imposed and security heightened in a city in southwest Nepal to prevent clashes between Hindus and Muslims.

An Indian court says officials can conduct a scientific survey of a 17th-century mosque in northern India to determine if it was built over Hindu temple.

Indian authorities have imposed a curfew, suspended internet service and deployed thousands of paramilitary forces to parts of northern Haryana state after deadly communal clashes.

India’s government-run animal welfare department has appealed to citizens to mark Valentine’s Day this year not as a celebration of romance but as “Cow Hug Day” to better promote Hindu values.

Hindus have asked that all six Fort Bend County school districts close to celebrate its most popular festival Diwali, which falls on Oct. 24 this year.

Emergency workers have rescued thousands of pilgrims after flash floods triggered by sudden rains swept through their makeshift camps during an annual Hindu pilgrimage to an icy Himalayan cave in Indian-controlled Kashmir.

At least 13 people have died after sudden rains triggered flash floods during an annual Hindu pilgrimage to an icy Himalayan cave in Indian-controlled Kashmir.

Tensions are high in India’s western Udaipur city.

It’s a convergence that happens only rarely.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party is touting Hindu-first politics and big-ticket construction projects to woo voters in the most populous state of Uttar Pradesh.

A crowd surge at a popular Hindu shrine in Indian-controlled Kashmir has killed at least 12 people and injured 15 others on New Year’s Day.

A vast stretch of one of India’s most sacred rivers, the Yamuna, is covered with toxic foam, caused in part by pollutants discharged from industries ringing New Delhi.

A spate of recent killings has rattled Indian-controlled Kashmir, with violence targeting local minority members and Indian civilians from outside the disputed region.

Top Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, including Modi, have campaigned heavily to win West Bengal for the first time and dislodge the state’s chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, as well as retain power in northeastern Assam state. The vote comes as tens of thousands of farmers have rattled Modi’s government with prolonged protests on the fringes of the capital, New Delhi. AdKailash Vijayvargia, a BJP leader, rejected Banerjee's criticism and said she was just rattled by the growing popularity of the BJP party in the state. In southern India, Modi's BJP party is vying for a third spot in Kerala, currently ruled by a Communist Party-led government. And in legislative elections in Tamil Nadu, both the BJP and Congress have allied with powerful regional parties as junior partners.

Modi and his Hindu nationalist party are making a serious bid for electoral victories in three states that have sizeable minority Muslim populations. In West Bengal, rival groups have attacked each other with sticks and rocks, and even set vehicles on fire. But in West Bengal and Assam, the BJP is banking on its strong Hindu nationalist ideology to draw votes. The test for Modi is likely to be the toughest in West Bengal, analysts say, where the political discourse has shifted from issues to personalities. “Its best hope remains in breaching West Bengal and consolidating its presence in Assam, its gateway to India’s northeast,’’ said analyst Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.

As the first anniversary of bloody communal riots that convulsed the Indian capital approaches, Muslim victims are still shaken and struggling to make sense of their struggle to seek justice. Many of the Muslim victims of last year's bloody violence say they have run repeatedly into a refusal by police to investigate complaints against Hindu rioters. AdMany believe the catalyst for last year's riots was a fiery speech by Kapil Mishra, a leader from Modi’s party. A year on, many Muslim victims of the riots are still cowering in fear of further bloodletting. The stories of many other Muslim victims follow a similar pattern.

Uttar Pradesh is the third Indian state ruled by Modi’s party after Haryana and Madhya Pradesh to approve such legislation to check what Hindu nationalist leaders call forced and unlawful religious conversions. Although India’s constitution is secular and provides protection to all faiths, the issue of “love jihad” has gripped headlines and pitted Modi’s party leaders against secular activists. India’s investigating agencies and courts have, however, rejected the “love jihad” theory, which many see as part of an anti-Muslim agenda by Modi’s party. They accuse the party of fanning religious passions and presiding over religious intolerance and sometimes even violence. The police complaint was registered in Madhya Pradesh state for allegedly offending the religious sentiments of Hindus.

An Indian court on Wednesday acquitted all 32 accused, including senior leaders of the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, in the case. Last year, India’s Supreme Court ruled in favor of building a Hindu temple on the disputed site. The Supreme Court also ruled that the demolition of the Babri Masjid was illegal and ordered that the separate trial in the mosque demolition case be completed expeditiously. The four acquitted BJP leaders — L.K. “When the Supreme Court said that the demolition of the mosque was an unlawful act, how can a lower court set free the accused?” he said.

People gather in Times Square after the groundbreaking ceremony of a temple dedicated to the Hindu god Ram by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2020, in New York. Hindus rejoiced as Modi broke ground on a long-awaited temple of their most revered god, Ram, at the site of a demolished 16th century mosque. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)NEW YORK A Midtown Manhattan celebration of a Hindu temple being built on disputed ground in India brought polarized groups into Times Square, where supporters of the landmark project were flanked by protesters calling it an offense to Muslims. Modi participated in the groundbreaking for the Hindu temple, which will be built where the Babri Masjid mosque stood, on Wednesday in the northeastern Indian city of Ayodhya. The organizers of the temple celebration in Times Square paid for billboards showing the planned Ayodhya temple, images the deity Ram and the Indian flag.

Wednesday's groundbreaking ceremony follows a ruling by India's Supreme Court last November favoring the building of a Hindu temple on the disputed site in Uttar Pradesh state. Hindus believe their god Ram was born at the site and claim that the Muslim Emperor Babur built a mosque on top of a temple there. Last week, a priest and 15 police officers at the temple site tested positive for the virus. Hindus believe their god Ram was born at the site and claim Muslim Emperor Babur built a mosque on top of a temple there. Repealing Kashmir's special status and building the Ram temple have been the BJPs core ideological planks.

Wednesday's groundbreaking ceremony follows a ruling by Indias Supreme Court last November favoring the building of a Hindu temple on the disputed site in Uttar Pradesh state. Hindus believe their god Ram was born at the site and claim that the Muslim Emperor Babur built a mosque on top of a temple there. The Supreme Court's verdict paved the way for the building of a temple in place of the demolished mosque. The court also ordered that Muslims be given 5 acres (2 hectares) of land to build a new mosque at a nearby site. The Gyanvapi mosque in the Uttar Pradesh city of Varanasi is in the complex of the Kashi Vishwanath temple dedicated to Lord Shiva.

FILE-In this Nov. 11, 2019 file photo, Hindu devotees pray while walking towards a temple, in Ayodhya, India. Indias Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend a groundbreaking ceremony next month for a Hindu temple on a disputed site in northern India where a 16th-century mosque was torn down by Hindu hard-liners in 1992. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh, File)NEW DELHI Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend a groundbreaking ceremony next week for a Hindu temple on a disputed site in northern India where a 16th century mosque was torn down by Hindu hard-liners in 1992, according to the trust overseeing the temple construction. In November, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the temple trust, saying that Muslim petitions would be given five acres at an alternative site. Hindus hard-liners have long contended Mughal Muslim invaders built a mosque on top of an existing temple in the ancient city of Ayodya.