Hindu woman abducted, held captive and forcibly converted to Islam by Muslim man in Sindh, Pakistan

Case ID : 30a9f4b | Location : Sindh, Pakistan | Date of Incident : Thu, 12 October, 2023

Case ID : 30a9f4b

Sindh, Pakistan

12 October, 2023

Hindu woman abducted, held captive and forcibly converted to Islam by Muslim man in Sindh, Pakistan

Predatory Proselytisation

Harassment for conversion leading to exodus

Case Summary

Rajeeta Meghwar Kolhi, a Hindu woman from Sindh’s Badin district, was abducted and held captive for around two months by a Muslim man named Ashiq Ahmadani. During her captivity, she was pressured to convert to Islam and marry a Muslim man. She was also threatened that her parents would be killed if she refused to comply. On 13 October 2023, Rajeeta eventually escaped from captivity and reached a police station, after which she was brought before a court in Mirpur Khas. During the court proceedings, Rajeeta repeatedly pleaded to be reunited with her parents and expressed her desire to return home. Despite her pleas, the court directed that she be placed in the custody of Dar-ul-Aman, a women’s shelter. Reports stated that she became distressed in the courthouse and pleaded to be allowed to leave with her family, but her request was turned down. The case drew criticism from minority rights activists, who pointed to the treatment of Rajeeta as evidence of the difficulties faced by Hindu women and girls in Pakistan after abduction and forced conversion. This case highlights the 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 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. The incident qualified as a religiously motivated hate crime because the Hindu woman, Rajeeta Meghwar Kolhi, was targeted not merely as an individual woman, but because of her Hindu identity and the coercive conduct against her was directly connected to changing her religious identity. The pressure to convert to Islam was a central element of the abuse she experienced, making religion an intrinsic part of the offence rather than an incidental circumstance. Her Hindu identity created the basis for the religiously coercive demands imposed upon her, while the subsequent pressure to enter a marriage with a Muslim man reinforced the objective of removing her from her existing religious and familial community. The religious motivation was particularly significant because the coercion sought to replace Rajeeta’s Hindu faith with Islam. Forced religious conversion is distinct from an ordinary abduction or forced marriage because it interferes directly with an individual’s freedom of religion and seeks to alter the victim’s religious identity through coercion. In this case, the conversion pressure was accompanied by threats against her parents, creating a situation in which compliance was demanded through fear and intimidation. The combination of abduction, threats, pressure to convert and pressure to marry therefore demonstrated that religious identity was an important factor in the harm inflicted upon her. Rajeeta’s Hindu identity was therefore not incidental to the circumstances; it was directly connected to the religious coercion imposed upon her. Rajeeta was subjected to coercive control over both her personal autonomy and religious identity, with conversion forming part of the demands made upon her. The threats directed towards her family further increased the pressure to comply and demonstrated that the perpetrators sought to use fear to overcome her ability to resist the religious demands. The harm consequently extended beyond unlawful confinement and forced marriage, as it involved an attempt to deprive a Hindu woman of her religious identity through coercive means. Such actions stem from inherent hostility towards the victim's professed faith since Abrahamic faiths believe that any non-adherent to the faith is subject to being dehumanised till they convert. Such acts were not merely personal crimes; they were rooted in a desire to dominate and erase the religious identity of the victim. For these reasons, the incident was classified as a religiously motivated hate crime. The decisive factor was that the coercive process specifically sought to change the victim from Hinduism to Islam and was accompanied by threats and forced marital arrangements. Her Hindu identity was therefore directly implicated in the motive and nature of the abuse, distinguishing the case from a conventional abduction or forced marriage in which religion played no identifiable role.