Sameer Ali abducts 16-year-old Hindu girl in Karachi, fakes her documents to make her appear to be 19, then converts her and does Nikah
Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan 
12 June, 2024
Case Summary
On June 13, 2024, in Karachi region of Pakistan, a 16-year-old Hindu girl was kidnapped by a Muslim named Sameer Ali, son of Gul Hassan belonging to Shahdabkot town, and was forcefully converted to Islam. According to records shared on social media by Faraz Pervaiz, a Pakistani Christian activist known for highlighting examples of religious persecution against minorities, the girl, Sangeetha, was forced to convert to Islam and married off to the abductor Muslim youth. Following her conversion, the Hindu girl was given the new name Hameeda. Although she is 16 years old, the accused Muslim faked her documents, making her appear to be 19. In the affidavit provided prior to the forced marriage, the accused stated that the girl was an adult and freely willing to marry him. According to Pervaiz, the accused forced the girl to sign an affidavit stating that she was 19, an adult and that she was marrying Sameer Ali out of love. The affidavit also added that if anyone filed a police complaint against the accused, it would be false as the victim was marrying him "with her free will."
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This particular case has been classified as a religiously motivated hate crime under the core category of Predatory Proselytisation because there is a distinct component in this case, which essentially involves harassment, threats and coercion for conversion. Harassment covers a wide range of behaviours of an offensive nature. It is commonly understood as behaviour that demeans, humiliates, and intimidates a person, including threats and coercion. Harassment and threats, in this case, find their root on discriminatory grounds which has the effect of nullifying a person’s rights or infringing upon his freedom to exercise his right specifically owing to the victim’s religious identity. Verbal and physical threats and psychological or physical harassment are often used against Hindu victims because they choose to practice their professed religion. Religious harassment also includes forced and involuntary conversions by harassment, threats or coercion. Coercion includes intimidatory tactics like force-feeding a Hindu victim beef to convert to another religion, forceful circumcision etc. In several cases documented, non-Hindu perpetrators or those who harbour specific animosity towards Hinduism, harass victims simply based on their religious identity. Such cases often also include harassment to ensure the Hindu victim abandons his/her professed religion and adopts the religion of the perpetrator. In this subcategory, we would only include cases where the victim was harassed, threatened or coerced to convert. Cases where attempts were made to convert but the victim resisted would be documented in another sub-category. Such cases where Hindu victims are harassed to convert to the perpetrator’s religion are rooted in animosity towards the victim’s religious identity and are therefore documented as religiously motivated hate crimes. In this instance, the Muslim perpetrator kidnapped a minor Hindu girl and coerced her into renouncing her faith and adopting Islam. He faked her documents to make her appear an adult, then married her as per Islamic rituals. In this case, it is evident from the details that the Hindu victim was a minor which essentially means that the element of consent and genuine change of conscience was missing ab initio. It is a well-established fact that children are more susceptible to manipulation since they are still developing emotionally, cognitively, and socially. Their brains are not fully matured, making them more vulnerable to influence and less capable of critically evaluating information. Moreover, they can get intimidated faster than adults. Here the perpetrator exploited this vulnerability of the minor girl and converted her to Islam. Another element in this crime is that of conversion of a minor and rape and sexual harassment of a minor, in terms of grooming. Religious brainwashing essentially means the often subtle and forcible indoctrination to induce someone to give up their religious beliefs to accept contrasting regimented ideas. Religious brainwashing also involves propaganda and manipulation. It involves the systematic effort, driven by religious malice and indoctrination, to persuade “non-believers’ to accept allegiance, command, or doctrine to and of a contrasting faith. Cases of such brainwashing are far more nuanced than direct threats, coercion, inducement and violence. In such cases, it is often seen that there is repeated, subtle and continual manipulation of the victim to induce disaffection towards their own faith and acceptance of the contrasting faith of the perpetrator. While subtle indoctrination is widely acknowledged as predatory, an element which is often understated in such conversions or the attempts of such conversion is the role of loyalty and trust which might develop between the perpetrator and the victim. Fiduciary relationships are often abused to affect such religious conversion. For example, an educator transmitting religious doctrine of a competing faith to a Hindu student. The Hindu student is likely to accept what the teacher is transmitting owing to existence of the fiduciary relationship. The exploitation of the fiduciary relationship to religiously indoctrinate victims would also be included in this category. Since the underlying animosity towards the victim’s faith forms the basis of predatory proselytization, such cases are considered religiously motivated hate crimes. In this case, even if the perpetrator is to be believed that the girl consented to the conversion and the relationship, the minor has no agency for either and therefore, it is a religiously motivated hate crime against a minor.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 0
- Female 1
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 0
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 1
Age Group
- Minor 1
- Adult 0
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Unknown
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
