Overview
- The SOAS/LSE-led report, chaired by human rights expert Juan Méndez, spans 200 pages and draws on around 80 interviews and digital analysis.
- The inquiry cites major gaps in policing intelligence, communication and visible civic leadership from Leicestershire Police and Leicester City Council.
- Researchers identify online disinformation as a central accelerant and say external ideological actors, including Hindutva networks and political Islamists, intensified tensions.
- The report concludes members of both Hindu and Muslim communities were victims as well as perpetrators as tensions escalated into violence in late summer 2022.
- Recommendations include a permanent community unity forum, specialist police training and faster responses to online mobilisation, while the government reviews the findings, Leicestershire Police pledge to consider them, and local Hindu groups reject the inquiry citing concerns over impartiality and funding.