Minor Hindu girl forcibly converted to Islam by Muslim man and his family members in Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh

Case ID : 30aa485 | Location : Bara Banki, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Mon, 31 August, 2026

Case ID : 30aa485

Bara Banki, Uttar Pradesh, India

31 August, 2026

Minor Hindu girl forcibly converted to Islam by Muslim man and his family members in Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh

Predatory Proselytisation

Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination

Conversion of minor

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Case Summary

In Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh, a 16-year-old Hindu girl was forcibly converted to Islam by a Muslim man, Mohammad Saqib, and his family. Saqib resided in Oman, while his family lived in Barabanki. He had lured the minor’s 24-year-old married Hindu cousin sister into a romantic relationship by promising her a better life in Oman. He also directed her towards conversion, following which the minor Hindu girl was also forcibly converted to Islam by Saqib and his family. Notably, the Hinduphobia Tracker contacted the police, who confirmed that both the minor and the adult woman were Hindus. On 1 September 2026, the two Hindu girls went missing from their village in the Tikaitnagar area of Barabanki. Following this, the girls' family approached the police. The adult woman’s father told the police that her Aadhaar card, which was kept at home, mentioned “Care of Mohammad Saqib” next to her name. Saqib was a resident of the same village but was working in Oman. His father, Safi, and his brother, Qadeer Jafri, resided in Barabanki. According to the police, Saqib had lured the adult Hindu woman into a relationship. He had assured her of a better life in Oman and asked her to leave her husband and come to Oman. He had also persuaded her to change the details on her Aadhaar card through a public service centre in the town. Her Aadhaar card subsequently mentioned Saqib’s name alongside hers. The investigation found that she had been converted to Islam and that the minor Hindu girl accompanying her had also been forcibly converted. The police recovered the two girls from a town. They were medically examined after their recovery, and their statements were recorded before a court. During her statement, the adult woman told the court that Saqib had promised her a better life and asked her to leave her husband and come to Oman. The police also stated that she had changed her Aadhaar details at Saqib’s insistence. The circumstances surrounding the forcible conversion of the minor Hindu girl were also investigated. The family had initially filed a complaint against Saqib’s father, Safi, and his brother, Qadeer Jafri. Following the investigation, the police added sections relating to forced religious conversion to the case. Saqib, Safi and Qadeer Jafri were named as accused. Police arrested Qadeer Jafri and sent him to jail on 8 September 2026. Saqib was residing in Oman. Police initiated steps to cancel his visa and began efforts to bring him back to India with the help of Interpol for his arrest. Ramsnehi Ghat Circle Officer Saurabh Srivastava said that the 24-year-old woman was handed over to her family after her statement was recorded. The 16-year-old minor Hindu girl was medically examined and kept at a One Stop Centre. Cases were registered against Saqib and his family members in connection with the religious conversion.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case is being added to the tracker under the primary category selected is: Predatory Proselytisation. The subcategory selected is: Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination. The tertiary category selected is: 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. The other 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 was a clear example of a religiously driven hate crime because a minor Hindu girl was forcibly converted to Islam by a Muslim man and his family. The victim was targeted because of her religious identity and was subjected to forced conversion. The involvement of the accused in converting the minor Hindu girl from Hinduism to Islam made the religious nature of the offence clear. The fact that the victim was a minor made the seriousness of the case even more pronounced. She being a minor means the element of consent and genuine change of conscience was missing ab initio. Minors, due to their young age and lack of maturity, are particularly vulnerable to manipulation and coercion. They do not have the ability to fully understand the implications of converting to another religion, and the perpetrators purposely targeted and exploited this vulnerability of the minor victim. Since this case exemplifies the use of coercion and manipulation to achieve religious conversion, it is a blatant act of a religiously motivated hate crime against the Hindu girl. It may be argued by some that since both girls were converted, the Hinduphobia Tracker should document both as victims. However, the circumstances of the two women are materially different. The victim was a minor, and the fact that she was converted to Islam at an age when she lacked the maturity and understanding necessary to make an informed decision regarding her religion constituted a violation of her religious autonomy. Given her age and inherent vulnerability as a minor, her conversion cannot be treated in the same manner as the voluntary exercise of religious choice by an adult. It was this conversion of a minor Hindu girl, whose ability to independently exercise religious autonomy was legally and developmentally limited, that formed the basis for documenting the incident as a hate crime. The other woman was an adult and therefore had the agency to make decisions regarding her religion and personal relationships. There was no information in the available account establishing that she had been forcibly converted. She herself did not state in her court statement that she had been subjected to coercion or pressure to change her religion, nor was there any testimony from her establishing that her conversion was involuntary. Therefore, the available information did not provide sufficient grounds to classify her conversion as a hate crime. As an adult woman, she had the autonomy to exercise her faith, enter into a relationship or marriage, and choose to convert to whichever religion she wished. Accordingly, she was not counted as a victim for the purpose of this case documentation. The use of coercive methods to facilitate the religious conversion of the minor Hindu girl constituted a violation of her religious autonomy and fundamental rights. Taking a minor away from the care and supervision of her family and the protection of her wider Hindu community, placing her in circumstances where her religious identity and familial ties were undermined, and subsequently subjecting her to conversion represented a deliberate interference with her ability to exercise her faith freely. Such conduct amounted to harassment because the removal of the minor from her familial environment was used as a means of facilitating and imposing a change in her religion. Given her age and vulnerability, she was not in a position to exercise the same level of independent religious agency as an adult, making the imposition of another religion particularly coercive. The use of such circumstances to secure the conversion of a Hindu minor therefore constituted an attack on her religious autonomy on account of her Hindu identity and amounted to a hate-driven act against a Hindu victim. Given that this case meets the parameters of a religiously driven hate crime, it is being added to the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker.