50 Hindus including 1-year-old girl lured into converting to Islam in Pakistan's Sindh

Case ID : 529b315 | Location : Sindh, Pakistan | Date of Incident : Wed, 3 May, 2023

Case ID : 529b315

Sindh, Pakistan

3 May, 2023

50 Hindus including 1-year-old girl lured into converting to Islam in Pakistan's Sindh

Predatory Proselytisation

Conversion/ attempts to convert by inducement

Case Summary

In Mirpurkhas, Sindh province of Pakistan, around 50 Hindus of 10 families, including 23 women and a 1-year-old girl, converted to Islam in a ceremony held at a local seminary in Baitul Iman New Muslim Colony. The event was attended by Mohammad Shamroz Khan, the son of the Minister for Religious Affairs, Senator Muhammad Talha Mahmood. A training centre was established in 2018 for newly converted Muslims, where arrangements for their sustenance, clothing, medicines, and Quranic teachings would be provided. Qari Taimur Rajput, one of the caretakers of the organisation claimed that the mass conversion was out of their free will and none of them were forced. The organisation conducting the event claimed that hundreds of people converted to Islam in the region over the past five years. Hindu activist Faqir Shiva Kucchi expressed anger and said, “The conversions in Sindh are a serious issue and instead of taking measures to stop it, the federal minister’s son is part of the conversion."

Why it is Hate Crime ?

Predatory Proselytisation is not just limited to threat, harassment, force and violence, but it also has contours of stealth. In several cases, the Hindu victim is exploited to convert, with non-Hindus taking advantage of their poverty. In such cases, the Hindu victim who is suffering financially is offered monetary benefits, including lucrative offers for jobs, health treatment, education, etc, to induce the victim into changing his/her religion. In such cases, the religious identity of the victim and the aim to disenfranchise him from his faith form the heart of the crime. Also, taking advantage of and exploiting an individual’s economic vulnerabilities is widely acknowledged as exploitation, forms of which are often penalised by law. Such cases therefore are considered religiously motivated hate crimes since the victim’s religious identity forms the very heart of the crime itself. In this specific case, it is important to also explain the dynamics of religious conversions in Pakistan. It is true that there are several religious conversions across the world which are completely voluntary and done out of the individual's own free will, driven by change in faith. However, religious conversions in Pakistan have an especially predatory nature. Pakistan, being an Islamic nation, harbours specific animosity towards non-Muslims, especially Hindus. Human Rights reports have detailed how minor Hindu girls are abducted by Muslim men and forcefully converted to Islam, then married off to their abductors. Hindus are widely persecuted on the basis of their religion. There are instances where minors, who were forced to convert after being kidnapped, were handed over to their abductors even by the courts of Pakistan. Temples are desecrated and razed to the ground, religious symbols destroyed and Hindus killed merely for displaying their faith. Under such circumstances, the version that 50 Hindus converted to Islam out of their own free will is a version that is most likely coloured by religious bigotry and coercion. Further, there is a strong possibility that even if the Hindus say they converted out of their own free will, it is to escape the persecution if they don't convert to Islam in Pakistan. For that reason, this case is being added to the hate crime tracker.