Minor Hindu girl abducted, forcibly converted, and married in Mirpurkhas, Sindh, Pakistan

Case ID : d3270d4 | Location : Mirpur Khas, Sindh, Pakistan | Date of Incident : Tue, 13 January, 2026

Case ID : d3270d4

Mirpur Khas, Sindh, Pakistan

13 January, 2026

Minor Hindu girl abducted, forcibly converted, and married in Mirpurkhas, Sindh, Pakistan

Predatory Proselytisation

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination

Family claims grooming

Conversion of minor

Case Summary

In Mirpur Khas, Sindh, a minor Hindu girl named Maria was abducted and subjected to forced religious conversion and marriage to her abductor, a Muslim man named Naeem Memon Rajput, Pakistan. According to local sources and family members, Maria, a minor Hindu girl, daughter of Shamon Bheel of Village Usman Shah Hadi, Tando Allahyar, was abducted and forcibly converted to Islam. Maria’s family stated that she was taken without consent and that the conversion and marriage were carried out under coercion. The Hindu family approached authorities seeking justice and protection for their child. She was married to her abductor, Naeem Memon Rajput, aged twenty-nine, a resident of Village Chandro Muhajir, despite being a minor. Following the abduction, Maria’s religious identity was changed, and she was renamed Naila Sheikh. The incident took place in violation of Sindh’s child protection and minority protection laws. The case sparked fear and distress within the local Hindu community, which viewed the incident as another instance of targeted persecution of Hindu girls through abduction, forced religious conversion, and marriage. Despite the existence of the Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act and the Sindh Hindu Marriage Act, the abduction, conversion, and marriage were carried out without effective intervention by the state. Notably, this was not the first time such incidents had taken place in Pakistan. The Hinduphobia Tracker had previously recorded numerous similar cases. For instance, in September 2025, in Umerkot, Sindh, a minor Hindu girl named Shardha Oad was abducted and subjected to forced religious conversion and marriage by a Muslim man named Riaz Ali and his accomplices. The case came to light after the victim’s widowed mother, Kamla Oad, complained to the Women’s Police Station in Umerkot. Similarly, in another case in September 2025, in Mirpur Khas, Sindh, a minor Hindu girl named Aneeta Thakur was abducted and subjected to forced religious conversion and marriage to a Muslim man named Abdul Rehman Mallah. Another such incident occurred in June 2025, in Pabban, Hyderabad, Pakistan, where a minor Hindu girl named Teji Thakur was abducted, raped, forcibly converted to Islam, and married to a Muslim man named Bashir Tangdi. Bashir, along with his accomplice, Murad Tangdi, and others, threatened Teji, warning her that they would harm her family if she resisted marrying Bashir. 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 Hindus in Pakistan, where their religious identity makes them targets of oppression.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category- Predatory Proselytisation. Within this, the subcategory selected 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. Another subcategory selected is- Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination. Within this, the tertiary categories selected are- Conversion of Minor and Family claims grooming. 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 the 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 proselytisation, such cases are considered religiously motivated hate crimes. In this case, the victim, Maria, was abducted specifically because of her Hindu identity, reflecting a recurring pattern in which minority girls in Pakistan are targeted for their faith. After her abduction, she was converted, her identity was changed, and she was married to her abductor, despite her being a minor. In this context, the act of abduction and conversion stems from a functional method of religious persecution and domination. The assault on a Hindu girl by a Muslim man under such circumstances operates as a weapon to subjugate her, break her spirit, and impose humiliation for her religious identity. It demonstrates a calculated effort to exercise control and inflict enduring psychological trauma on both the individual victim and the broader Hindu community. Such incidents are not isolated cases; rather, they are part of a persistent and troubling pattern in Pakistan, where Hindu minorities, particularly young Hindu girls, are frequently targeted for kidnappings, forced religious conversions, and marriages to Muslim men. This ongoing trend showcases the systemic discrimination and violence faced by the Hindu community in Pakistan. The Hindu minority has been subjected to various forms of harassment, marginalisation, and abuse since the country’s inception. Another point to highlight is that the victim in this case is a minor. Hence, it negates any genuine element of consent or voluntary change of faith from the outset. Children, due to their ongoing emotional and cognitive development, are especially susceptible to manipulation and indoctrination, making them easy targets for those seeking to exploit religious or social vulnerabilities. When such acts are perpetrated against minors of a specific faith, in this case, Hindus, using abduction and coercion tactics, then they are clear instances of hate crimes and clear violations of both human rights and child protection norms. The act of forced conversion and subsequent marriage of the Hindu victim demonstrated the violation of her religious rights. It was a deliberate attempt to strip her of her Hindu faith and impose Islamic faith upon her. By targeting her religious beliefs, the perpetrators demonstrated clear animosity towards Hinduism and the Hindu community, making it a religiously motivated crime. As the motive behind the crime is rooted in religious animosity towards Hindus, it has been categorised as a hate crime and accordingly included in the Hinduphobia Tracker. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records the date of an incident based on when the crime occurs, rather than when it is later reported in social or mainstream media. In this case, no specific date is available regarding when the victim was abducted or when her ordeal began. Therefore, the date, when the matter was first highlighted by the media, on 14 January 2026, is being used as the indicative date of the incident.