Hindu girl in Sindh abducted, forcibly converted and married to Mashooq and his friends

Case ID : 0b674bf | Location : Mirpur Khas, Sindh, Pakistan | Date of Incident : Sun, 7 July, 2024

Case ID : 0b674bf

Mirpur Khas, Sindh, Pakistan

7 July, 2024

Hindu girl in Sindh abducted, forcibly converted and married to Mashooq and his friends

Predatory Proselytisation

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Attack not resulting in death

Attacked for opposing radicals or trying to save victim

Case Summary

In Sindh, a young Hindu girl named Sabhagi Bhil was abducted, forcibly converted, and married against her will to Mashooq Chang and his friends. After being held captive for several days, Sabhagi escaped and returned to her parents. A few days later, her abductors attacked her home, injuring her father and uncle, and attempted to kidnap her again. The villagers showed solidarity and bravery, protecting Sabhagi and her family, ultimately driving away the attackers. Authorities have launched an investigation, though concerns about its effectiveness remain. Sabhagi sought help from Pakistani Hindu activist Fakir Shiva Kachhi, revealing that she was forced into marriage and conversion, and expressed her desire to live safely with her parents.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

Two primary categories of the hate tracker have been selected here as per case details. The first category under which this case has been placed is- Predatory Proselytisation. Under this category, the sub-category chosen is- Harassment, threats, 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. The second category under which this case has been placed is- Attack not resulting in death. Under this category, the sub-category chosen is- Attacked for opposing radicals/or trying to save victim from radicals- In several cases, Hindus are attacked for opposing religiously motivated crimes being committed against a fellow Hindu or simply for voicing an opinion opposing radical elements, who either have in the past or continue to persecute Hindus. In such cases, the initial attack against the victim, against which the Hindu was trying to defend the victim, would also need to be classified as a religiously motivated hate crime. Since the initial crime itself was religiously motivated and the subsequent crime of attempting to save the victim or speaking against the radical elements ends up inviting a violent attack, it would also be classified as a religiously motivated hate crime under this category. In this case, the Hindu minor girl was abducted and kept in confinement. This itself is a severe form of intimidation. Further, she was forced to convert and marry her abductor. After all of this, when she managed to escape and return to her parents, her family was attacked by her perpetrators. The purpose behind the violence employed was to coerce the victim to abandon her faith and accept Islam. The underlying motivation of predatory proselytisation itself is animosity towards the professed faith of the victim. In this case, there was violence involved in the pressure exerted to forcefully convert the Hindu girl. Further, the central aim of the perpetrators was to disenfranchise the Hindu girl from her professed faith. Since the central motivation is religion, this case has been added as a hate crime.