Hindu girl from Sindh raped at gunpoint by Muslim man, blackmailed with videos and death threats to convert and marry him

Case ID : 90a0831 | Location : Samaro, Sindh, Pakistan | Date of Incident : Sat, 15 February, 2025

Case ID : 90a0831

Samaro, Sindh, Pakistan

15 February, 2025

Hindu girl from Sindh raped at gunpoint by Muslim man, blackmailed with videos and death threats to convert and marry him

Predatory Proselytisation

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Case Summary

Sugna Kohli, a Hindu girl from Samaro, Sindh, Pakistan, was rescued by the organisation Indus Valley minorities, from her Muslim kidnapper and rapist, Majid Ali Shar. According to her video statement, when she had gone to tend to her field, she was kidnapped and raped at gunpoint by Majid. Her videos and images were taken to blackmail her. He threatened to post the act on Facebook if she revealed this to anyone. Then, she was taken to a cleric for conversion and marriage. Majid gave her and her parents death threats if she did not comply. She was also forced to make a false statement in court.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the prime category of- Predatory Proselytisation. Under this, the sub-category selected is- Harassment, threat, 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. In this instance, a Hindu woman was kidnapped, raped, blackmailed and forcibly converted to Islam in Pakistan, a country that has experienced a persistent pattern of kidnappings, rapes, forced conversions, and ongoing harassment of Hindu minorities since its establishment. This troubling trend reflects systemic discrimination and violence against Hindu communities, where vulnerable individuals, especially young girls, are targeted for coercive religious conversion. This constitutes a religiously motivated hate crime as such actions are driven by intolerance towards the victim's religious identity and aim to coerce them into abandoning their faith, often accompanied by threats, violence, or other forms of intimidation.