Hindu girl in Sindh kidnapped, converted and married to her abductor

Case ID : 0b674cd | Location : Sindh, Pakistan | Date of Incident : Tue, 11 June, 2024

Case ID : 0b674cd

Sindh, Pakistan

11 June, 2024

Hindu girl in Sindh kidnapped, converted and married to her abductor

Predatory Proselytisation

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Case Summary

In Sindh, Pakistan, a Hindu girl named Radhika was kidnapped by Tando Muhammad Khan, taken to the dargha of Pir Ayoub Jan Sarhandi, forcibly converted to Islam, and then married to her abductor. Her family was devastated when they discovered her disappearance, and their fears were confirmed upon learning of her forced conversion and marriage. The incident has left them feeling fearful and helpless.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

One primary category of the hate tracker has been selected here as per case details. The 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. In this case, a Hindu minor girl was abducted, confined, and subjected to severe torture and intimidation. She was then taken to a dargah, where she was forcefully converted to Islam and married to her abductor. The purpose of this torture was to coerce the victim into abandoning her faith and accepting Islam. The underlying motivation of predatory proselytization, driven by animosity towards the victim's professed faith, was evident. The perpetrators used violence to pressure the girl into converting, with the central aim of separating her from her Hindu identity. Given that religion was the primary motivation, this case has been classified as a hate crime.