Hindu minor girl abducted, temples desecrated, Hindu families driven out by the Muslim community in Sindh
Hyderabad, Sindh, Pakistan 
30 April, 2025
Case Summary
In Sindh, Pakistan, a 14-year-old Hindu girl, Teji Thakor, was abducted on the night of May 1 from Paban, near Hyderabad, by members of the Tangri Muslim community. According to her parents, some members of the Tangri Muslim community barged into their home in the middle of the night, physically assaulted the family, and forcefully took their minor daughter Teji away. She was subsequently converted to Islam and married off to a Muslim man named Basheer Ahmed. The Muslim attackers have also vandalised her family's home. The Muslim attackers also threatened and warned them that if they raised their voice, their other daughters would also be kidnapped. Furthermore, it was also revealed that the Tangri Muslim community has also harassed and vandalised the houses of other Hindus in the area. They have attacked temples, leading to fear and panic in the Hindu community, many of whom fled the area for safety. Despite the enactment of the Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act, which prohibits child marriage, the local police have refused to provide any help and even an FIR wasn't registered. 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 minority Hindus in Pakistan, where their religious identity makes them targets of continued oppression.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category of: - Predatory proselytisation. Within it, the sub-category selected is: - Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination, with the tertiary category being: - 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 second primary category selected is: - Attacked not resulting in death. Within it, the sub-category selected is: - Attacked for Hindu identity. In several cases, Hindus are attacked merely for their Hindu identity without any perceived provocation. A classic example of this category of religiously motivated hate crime is a murder in 2016. 7 ISIS terrorists were convicted for shooting a school principal in Kanpur because they got ‘triggered’ seeing the Kalava on his wrist and tilak that he had put. In this, the Hindu victim had offered no provocation except for his Hindu religious identity. The motivation for the murder was purely religious, driven by religious supremacy. Such cases where Hindus are targeted merely for their religious identity would be documented as a hate crime under this category. The other sub-category relevant here is: - Attacked to induce migration from non-Hindu dominated area. There have been cases where the Hindus living in an area, often with a majority dwelling belonging to non-Hindus or those harbouring animosity towards the Hindu faith, the Hindu residents experience threats and violence. The violence is employed with the aim of making the Hindus leave the area and relocate, so the area could be turned into an exclusive ghetto for adherents of the non-Hindu faith or those who harbor animosity towards the Hindu faith. In several cases, the aim of exodus is explicit. However, in several cases, the demand for exodus of Hindu residents is not explicit, however, violence by non-Hindu residents leaves the Hindu residents no option but to leave the area, thereby, turning the area into an exclusive ghetto of non-Hindu residents. In such cases, there are instances violence against the Hindu residents explicitly. For example, in the Hauz Qazi case of 2019, the Muslim residents claimed that mob violence against the Hindu residents had been triggered by a parking dispute. However, the violence did turn religious with a temple being desecrated and was directed specifically against the Hindu residents. The Hindu residents of the area were clear that the violence was religiously motivated and one of the motives was to affect an exodus of the Hindu residents. In such cases, even though the perpetrators have not explicitly expressed the aim of affecting exodus, the given circumstances and violence and precedent point to the intention of exodus and therefore would be categorized under this sub-category. Such crimes are religiously motivated and therefore are hate crimes. The third primary category selected here is: - Attack on Hindu religious representations. Within it, the sub-category selected is: - Attack on temples. In Hinduism, a temple is the abode of the Deity. The Deity in the Temple is consecrated, thereby, making it a real, breathing entity. Hindus believe that not just the Deity but the temple premises itself are sacred to Hindus since Hindus hold the faith that the entire Temple space is an amalgamation of the divine energy of the deity. Given the central significance of Temples in Hindu Dharma, any attack against a Hindu Temple or its peripheral premises is an attack on the faith itself and is born out of animosity towards the faith, of which, the Temple is a central tenet. Any manner of attack against a Temple and/or its premises would therefore be considered a religiously motivated hate crime. This case has been added to the tracker as there are multiple religious markers, making this a textbook example of hate crime. Firstly, a minor Hindu girl was kidnapped, converted to Islam and married off by some members of the Tangri Muslim community. The perpetrator's motive, coercive conversion to Islam and forced marriage, reflects a pattern in which Hindu minors, particularly girls, are singled out by non-Hindu perpetrators for religious conversion and exploitation. Such acts are not isolated but part of a broader phenomenon in Sindh and other regions of Pakistan, where Hindu girls are systematically abducted, groomed, and forced into religious conversion and marriage, often under threat or violence. The targeting is not random but is rooted in the victim’s Hindu faith, making the crime inherently religiously motivated. The victim is a minor, indicating 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. This case demonstrates a calculated strategy of targeting those who are less able to resist or understand the long-term implications of conversion, making it a significant case of religious-motivated hate crime. Furthermore, the report suggests that this wasn't an isolated incident, but the members of the Muslim community had been harassing multiple Hindu families in the area. They attacked homes, desecrated temples, and created an environment of fear to terrorise and uproot the Hindu population from the area. The temples are deeply sacred to Hindus. Acts of desecration against these temples are considered highly offensive and are clear demonstrations of hatred towards the Hindu community. Thus, the temple attack wasn't just a random act of vandalism but an act meant to send a message that Hindu symbols, traditions, and beliefs will not be tolerated in Pakistan. These acts of religiously motivated violence are not merely about physical domination but about psychological and spiritual subjugation. Destroying temples and abducting Hindu daughters are deliberate strategies designed to create an atmosphere of fear and helplessness, ultimately forcing Hindu families to flee. This is a classic example of violence being used as a tool for inducing the migration of a particular community from the area. The attacks are meant to send a signal that Hindus cannot live, worship, or survive with dignity in these areas, thereby forcing migration through systematic persecution. This incident is emblematic of a longstanding and deeply entrenched pattern of persecution faced by Hindu minorities in Pakistan. This incident, involving the forced abduction for religious conversion and marriage of a Hindu minor by an Islamist perpetrator, mirrors the widespread and well-documented practices of targeted violence, abductions, and forced conversions that have afflicted the Hindu community across various regions of the country. In this case, even though the Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act exists, police refused to help and did not register an FIR. Reports and human rights documentation consistently highlight how Hindu girls are especially vulnerable to such attacks, often with little to no intervention from authorities, and how these crimes are frequently facilitated or ignored by local institutions, including the police.
Case Status
Unknown
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
