Asibur Rahman abducts a minor Hindu girl, forces her to convert to Islam

Case ID : ac55dfc | Location : Medinipur, West Bengal, India | Date of Incident : Sat, 17 June, 2023

Case ID : ac55dfc

Medinipur, West Bengal, India

17 June, 2023

Asibur Rahman abducts a minor Hindu girl, forces her to convert to Islam

Predatory Proselytisation

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Case Summary

On 5 October 2023, it was reported that a 15-year-old Hindu girl was abducted and forced to convert her religion to Islam. The accused has been identified as Asibur Rahman. The accused was believed to have close relations with a prominent figure within the ruling TMC (Trinamool Congress) party. The young Hindu girl lived in Maligram village, which is under the jurisdiction of Pingla Police Station in the Paschim Medinipur region. She went missing on June 18 in Namchi, Sikkim. The incident came to the fore after the family members of the girl filed a missing person’s complaint at the Pingala Police Station in Paschim Medinipur district. The police failed to take action in the case as the accused is said to have connections with some persons from the TMC. The father of the girl then approached the Calcutta High Court. The distraught father, in a bid to get his daughter back, filed a petition in the High Court. The High Court then ordered the Police to provide necessary security for the girl’s family.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been placed under the prime category- Predatory proselytisation of the hate tracker. Further, the sub-category under which this case has been placed 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. In this subcategory, we would only include cases where the victim was harassed, threatened or coerced to convert. Cases where attempts were made to convert but the victim resisted would be documented in another sub-category. 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 minor girl was kidnapped and forcibly converted to Islam. As such, the act of kidnapping minor children and keeping them in confinement is in itself a severe form of intimidation. Notably, when victims are minors, the element of consent and genuine change of conscience is missing ab initio. 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 matured, making them more vulnerable to influence and less capable of critically evaluating information. Therefore forcing the child to give up her professed faith is a sort of harassment that is rooted in animosity towards the victim’s religious identity and is therefore documented as a religiously motivated hate crime in this Hindu hate tracker.