Hindu girl abducted and forcibly converted to Islam by Muslims in Punjab, Pakistan
Rahim Yar Khan, Punjab, Pakistan 
23 May, 2026
Case Summary
In Pakistan’s Punjab province, a Hindu girl named Heer was abducted and forced to recite the Kalma (Islamic declaration of faith) and convert to Islam by a group of Muslims. This was done so that she could be forcibly married to an elderly Muslim man. The Hindu victim was a resident of Rahim Yar Khan, Punjab. She was kidnapped from her home by a group of Muslims. After she was taken to meet Mian Mithu, an Islamic peer who is known for abducting minor girls from minority religious communities in Pakistan and converting them to Islam. The victim, Heer, was also forcibly converted to Islam by Mian Mithu. A video of Heer’s forced conversion was shared on social media by “Rescue Sindhi Hindus,” a Hindu organisation advocating for rights and protection of Pakistani Hindu minorities. In that video, the victim was seen with Mian Mithu, who was forcing her to recite the Kalma (Islamic declaration of faith). Available information indicated that she was threatened and forced to recite the Kalma. The victim was converted so that she could be forcibly married to a 50-year-old Muslim man. This incident reflected the broader pattern of persecution and insecurity faced by the Hindu minority in Pakistan, where Hindus continue to face systemic discrimination, communal hostility, religiously motivated violence, and social marginalisation because of their religious identity. Hindu temples and religious symbols are frequently vandalised, while Hindu individuals and families often face threats, intimidation, and mob violence. Hindu women and minor girls remain particularly vulnerable to abduction, forced conversion to Islam, and forced marriages to Muslim men. Blasphemy allegations are also disproportionately used against Hindus, often resulting in false accusations, communal mobilisation, arbitrary arrests, threats, and violent attacks. 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. Such incidents create a constant atmosphere of fear and vulnerability within the Hindu community, highlighting the precarious condition of religious minorities in Pakistan.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category- Predatory Proselytisation. Within this, the subcategory selected 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. 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. This case had been categorised as a hate crime, as the abduction and forced conversion of a Hindu girl in Pakistan, followed by her intended marriage to an elderly Muslim man, clearly illustrated the exploitation of vulnerable Hindu minorities through coercion and manipulation. Such incidents were not isolated occurrences but formed part of a persistent and deeply troubling pattern in Pakistan, where Hindu minorities, particularly young girls, were systematically targeted for abduction, forced religious conversion, and marriage to Muslim men. This ongoing trend revealed the entrenched discrimination and violence faced by Hindu communities, who had endured harassment, marginalisation, and abuse since the country’s inception. In this case, the victim, Heer, was abducted specifically because of her Hindu identity, reflecting a recurring pattern in which minority girls in Pakistan were targeted on the basis of their faith. After her abduction, she was taken to meet Mian Mithu, an Islamic peer known for involvement in cases of forced conversions of minority girls. She was subjected to threats and coercion and was forced to recite the Kalma, following which she was converted to Islam. In this context, the act of forced religious declaration and conversion functioned as a method of religious domination and control, aimed at stripping her of her Hindu identity and imposing a new religious identity through coercion. It demonstrated a calculated effort to exercise control and inflict psychological trauma on both the individual victim and the broader Hindu community. Following the conversion, Heer was targeted for forced marriage to a 50-year-old Muslim man. Conversions carried out through intimidation, duress, or coercion could not be regarded as genuine expressions of faith or voluntary belief. Rather, they constitute clear instances of religiously motivated hate crimes aimed at stripping Hindu girls of their religious identity. Such forced conversions violate the victim's religious autonomy and fundamental rights to practice her faith safely. It also reflects pronounced religious hostility and embodies a systemic effort to erase the cultural and religious presence of the Hindu community in Pakistan. Given that this incident met multiple parameters of a religiously motivated crime, including abduction based on religious identity, forced religious declaration under coercion, conversion under duress, and attempted forced marriage to erase faith affiliation, this case has been unequivocally classified as a religiously motivated hate crime. Accordingly, it has been added to the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records incident dates based on when the victim’s ordeal began rather than when it is reported by the media. It is important to clarify that none of the media sources covering this case has specified the exact date when the victim’s ordeal began. Therefore, 24 May 2026, the date when this incident was reported by the Hindu organisation “Rescue Sindhi Hindus”, has been selected as the indicative incident date. This is recorded for documentation purposes only. In this case, the perpetrator count is recorded as '2'. This refers to Mian Mithu and the 50-year-old Muslim man.
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 0
- Adult 0
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 1
Case Status
Unknown
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
