Hindu minor girl abducted, forcibly converted and married to Muslim man in Sindh, Pakistan
Tando Jam, Sindh, Pakistan 
29 December, 2025
Case Summary
A 15-year-old Hindu girl, Premi Bhil, was forcibly converted to Islam and married to a Muslim man, Shehbaz Mahar, on 26 December 2025 in Tando Jam Muhammad, Sindh. Premi Bhil, daughter of Mohen Bhil, had lived with her family in Goth Khan Shah Colony. On the day of the incident, she was abducted from her home and separated from her family. Following this, she underwent a religious conversion without the consent of her family and was given the Muslim name Kulsoom Sheikh. She was subsequently married to Shehbaz Mahar, despite objections raised by her family. The family approached local police to register a First Information Report and to seek protection for Premi Bhil. Despite the marriage constituting a direct violation of the Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act, a serious and punishable criminal offence under provincial law, the authorities declined to register the case. This refusal left the family without any legal recourse. Civil society organisations and minority rights advocates placed the case within a broader pattern of coercive practices targeting Hindu women in Sindh. They noted that families often faced institutional barriers when attempting to challenge forced conversions or coerced marriages. According to these organisations, the lack of effective legal enforcement enabled perpetrators to act with impunity, leaving victims and their families without timely protection or justice. This case highlights the persistent persecution faced by the Hindu minorities in Pakistan, marked by systemic discrimination, violence, and forced conversions. Hindu women, particularly young girls, are often abducted, forcibly converted to Islam, and married off to Muslim men with little to no legal recourse. Temples are frequently vandalised or destroyed, and Hindu communities are subjected to social and economic marginalisation. Blasphemy laws are disproportionately used against Hindus, leading to false accusations and severe punishments. Many Hindu families are forced to flee their homes due to religious intolerance, living in constant fear of attacks. This sustained persecution highlights the dire conditions for Hindus in Pakistan, where their religious identity makes them targets of oppression.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been documented under the selected primary category: Predatory Proselytisation. Under this, the selected secondary category is: Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation and subtle indoctrination. Under this, the selected tertiary category is: Family claims grooming, conversion of minor. 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 grooming or 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 grooming or 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. Another selected secondary category 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. This particular case has been identified as a religiously motivated hate crime due to the following reasons: Firstly, the abuse and coercion experienced by Premi Bhil were directly linked to her identity as a Hindu minor. Her religion and age made her an especially vulnerable target for abduction, forced conversion, and coerced marriage, demonstrating a deliberate intent to harm her personally and intimidate the wider Hindu community. Secondly, the forced conversion violated her fundamental right to freedom of religion and belief, depriving her of the ability to make any independent choice about her faith at a critical stage in her life. The subsequent marriage further compounded the harm, exposing her to severe social, psychological, and emotional consequences, which are particularly damaging for a minor. When the victim is a minor, there is an absence of both consent and a genuine change of conscience. 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 mature, making them more vulnerable to influence and less capable of critically evaluating information. Moreover, subtle manipulation tactics can be difficult to detect, making it challenging for parents to identify and address instances of religious manipulation. Consequently, cases involving religious manipulation of minors not only represent an infringement on an individual's religious freedom but also demonstrate a calculated strategy of targeting those who are less able to resist or understand the long-term implications of conversion, making it a significant case of religious-motivated hate crime. Thirdly, the refusal of local authorities to register a First Information Report reflected institutional neglect and bias, disproportionately affecting a minority child. This inaction reinforced systemic discrimination and signalled to the Hindu community that their minor daughters were at risk and that their rights carried less weight under the law. It is important to note here that the broader context of persistent anti-Hindu discrimination in Pakistan strongly suggests that her religious identity played a role in her victimisation. This incident is not isolated—it reflects a deeply entrenched pattern of religiously motivated violence against Hindus in Pakistan. Hindu boys, girls, and women are frequently subjected to brutal acts, including sexual violence, abductions, and forced conversions. These attacks are often driven by the belief of religious supremacy in Islam, where the lives of Hindus are considered inferior, which can be violated with impunity. The lack of legal protection, complicit silence of the authorities, and systemic failures of the judicial system perpetuate a climate of fear and injustice. Such cases illustrate how Hindu minorities in Pakistan are deliberately targeted for their faith, reinforcing the urgent need for international scrutiny and pressure to ensure the safety, dignity, and human rights of these vulnerable communities. Overall by forcibly converting and marrying a Hindu girl who was a minor, the act targeted both the individual and the wider community, functioning as collective intimidation. It demonstrated clear elements of religious hostility, coercion, and structural abuse, making it a deliberate act of hate against a vulnerable minority. It is thus, added to the tracker. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records incident dates based on when the crime occurred, rather than when the media reports it. However, in this case, media reports have not specified the exact date when the victim's ordeal began. Henceforth, for documentation purposes, 30th December 2025, the date of media reporting, has been selected as the indicative incident date.
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
Complaint not filed
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
