Hindu minor boy forced to convert to Islam at madarsa in Matli, Pakistan
Matli, Sindh, Pakistan 
26 April, 2024
Case Summary
A 15-year-old Hindu boy, identified as Soojal Meghwar, from Tando Ghulam Ali in Sindh, Pakistan, was forcibly converted to Islam after being taken to a madarsa in Matli. According to the information available, Soojal was taken to a madarsa against his will, where he was subjected to religious indoctrination and pressured to abandon his Hindu faith and embrace Islam. The incident came to light after a video was shared on social media by “Rescue Sindhi Hindus,” a Hindu organisation advocating for the rights and protection of Pakistani Hindu minorities. The incident has once again raised concerns about the safety of Hindu minors and the vulnerability of Pakistan's Hindu minority, particularly in Sindh, where cases involving the forced conversion of Hindu girls and young people have repeatedly surfaced. This incident is yet another example of 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. Under 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. The other subcategory selected is: Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination. Within this, the subcategory 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. Such incidents were not isolated occurrences but formed part of a persistent and deeply troubling pattern in Pakistan, where Hindu minorities, particularly young children, were systematically targeted for abduction and forced religious conversion. 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 was abducted specifically because of her Hindu identity, reflecting a recurring pattern in which minority Hindus in Pakistan were targeted on the basis of their faith. In this context, the act of forced religious declaration and conversion functioned as a method of religious domination and control, aimed at stripping the boy of his 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. 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. The fact that the Hindu boy was a minor makes the incident far more egregious, as it indicates a lack of 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 able to critically evaluate information. Moreover, subtle manipulation tactics can be difficult to detect, especially when employed by trusted authority figures in positions of influence. This makes 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. Given that this incident met multiple parameters of a religiously motivated crime, including forced religious declaration under coercion and conversion under duress, 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.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 1
- Female 0
- 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
Unknown
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
Unknown
Perpetrators Gender
unknown
Sources 
