A year after extremists forced Muslim neighbors from their homes in India, victims live in despair as their tormentors seek to drive Islam from what they consider a Hindu "holy land."

Mohammad Salim shudders when he remembers the campaign that erupted in May 2023 against his Muslim minority community in Purola, a seemingly sleepy town surrounded by forested hills in the northern state of Uttarakhand.

"If I had not escaped that day, they would have killed me along with my family," said Salim, 36, a married father of three young daughters.