Minor Hindu girl abducted, forced to convert and perform Nikah in Sindh; Police refuses to register FIR
Mirpur Khas, Sindh, Pakistan 
5 May, 2025
Case Summary
In Mirpurkhas, Sindh, a 13-year-old minor Hindu girl named Payal Bhatt was abducted on May 6, 2025, by a Muslim man named Mumtaz Machhi and two of his accomplices. According to the victim's parents, the girl was abducted by Mumtaz Machhi, who was their neighbour. He came along with two of his accomplices and physically assaulted them and abducted Payal. After her abduction, their parents learned from locals that Mumtaz forcefully converted Payal to Islam and performed Nikah with her. Although the parents filed a complaint against the accused, a formal case was not registered by the police despite the seriousness of the crime. The incident is yet another grim example of the ongoing pattern of targeted abductions and coercive conversions of Hindu girls in Pakistan, particularly minors, underscoring the broader reality of relentless persecution faced by the Hindu minority. This community continues to endure systemic discrimination, violence, and forced conversions, with women and young girls being especially vulnerable to abduction, forced conversion to Islam, and marriage to Muslim men, often without any legal protection or recourse. The silence of authorities and the failure of the justice system deepen their pain, leaving victims and their loved ones feeling abandoned and powerless. These aren’t just statistics—they are real people whose lives are shattered while the world looks away.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under multiple categories. The first primary category selected here is: - 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 sub-category selected under the above primary category 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 is a clear instance of a religiously motivated hate crime against Hindus, and it serves as a stark reminder of the persecution that Hindu minorities in Pakistan face on a daily basis. In this case, a 13-year-old Hindu girl was abducted by her neighbour, Mumtaz Machchi. He forcefully converted her to Islam and performed Nikah with her, even though she is still a minor. The worst part is that the police refused to register an FIR despite the crime being apparent, as even in Pakistan, marriage before the age of 18 is illegal. This reflects the state’s apathy, rooted in religious animosity, when the victims are Hindus. Additionally, given that the victim is a minor, any notion of consent is legally and ethically invalid, especially when the religious conversion happened through abduction. When the victim is a minor, the element of consent and genuine change of conscience is missing ab initio. Minors, due to their young age and lack of maturity, are particularly vulnerable to manipulation and coercion. They may not have the ability to fully understand the implications of converting to another religion, and the Muslim perpetrator purposely targeted and exploited this vulnerability of the victims. This incident is not isolated—it reflects a deeply entrenched pattern of religiously motivated violence against Hindus in Sindh. Hindu boys, girls, and women are frequently subjected to brutal acts, including sexual violence, abductions, and forced conversions. These attacks are often driven by the belief of religious supremacy in Islam, where the lives of Hindus are considered inferior, which can be violated with impunity. The lack of legal protection, complicit silence of the authorities, and systemic failures of the judicial system perpetuate a climate of fear and injustice. Such cases illustrate how Hindu minorities in Pakistan are deliberately targeted for their faith, reinforcing the urgent need for international scrutiny and pressure to ensure the safety, dignity, and human rights of these vulnerable communities.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 0
- Female 1
- 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
Complaint filed
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
