Minor Hindu girl abducted, forcibly converted and married to Muslim man in Pakistan
Hyderabad, Sindh, Pakistan 
25 June, 2025
Case Summary
In Pabban, Hyderabad, Pakistan, a minor Hindu girl named Teji Thakur was abducted, raped, forcibly converted to Islam, and married to a Muslim man named Bashir Tangdi. Bashir and his accomplice, Murad Tangdi and others threatened Teji, warning her that they would harm her family if she resisted marrying Bashir. Shiva Kachhi, a prominent Pakistani Hindu activist and Chairman of the minority rights organisation Ittehad, shared Teji’s story on his X (formerly Twitter) account. He explained that Teji had been abducted, raped, forcibly converted to Islam and married to Bashir. The victim's parents reached out to Kachhi and desperately pleaded for her safe return. Through his support, Teji was safely recovered and handed back to her family. On his X account, Shiva Kachhi stated, “We will now file cases against all those responsible for the abduction, forced conversion, and forced marriage, including those who facilitated the marriage, so that these brutal perpetrators can receive the harshest possible punishment.” The following day, Shiva Kacchi posted another update, revealing that Teji had started receiving fresh threats of abduction. In a video shared by him on X, Teji herself described how Bashir and his accomplices had abducted her, raped her, forced her to convert to Islam, and threatened to kill her family if she refused to marry Bashir. Teji appealed to the authorities to take strict action against those responsible, a plea even echoed by her family. Shiva Kacchi expressed his disappointment that the authorities had not acted against the Muslim perpetrators. He stated that he and his organisation would protest against this lack of action and pursue justice. 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 ?
The prime category under which this case has been placed is- Predatory proselytisation, and within this, the first sub-category selected is- Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination. The tertiary category selected within this is- Rape and sexual assault/harassment and 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 here 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 primary category selected in this case is- Hate Speech against Hindus. Within this, the subcategory selected is- Violent threats. Violent threats, explicit, implicit or implied, is the most dangerous form of hate speech since it goes beyond discriminatory and prejudicial language to express the intent of causing harm to an individual or a group of people based on their religious identity and faith. There could be several different kinds of threats that are issued to Hindus based on religious animosity. An explicit threat would mean the direct threat of violence towards an individual Hindu, a group of Hindus or Hindus at large. Physical violence, death threats, threats of destruction of property belonging to Hindus and threats of genocide would mean explicit threats against Hindus for their religious identity. Implicit threats may not be a direct threat but implied through the use of symbols of actions – for example – in the Nupur Sharma case, other than explicit threats, there were also implicit threats when Islamists took to the streets to burn and beat her effigies. It implies that they want to do the same to Nupur Sharma – thereby is considered an implicit threat. Violent threats can be delivered in person, through letters, phone calls, graffiti, or increasingly through social media and other online platforms. It would be important to understand that a threat – explicit or implicit, online or offline – to an individual who happens to be a Hindu does not qualify as a religiously motivated threat. Such a threat, while vile and dangerous, could be owing to non-religious reasons and/or personal animosity. To qualify as a religiously motivated threat, it would need to exhibit an indication that the individual is being targeted for religious reasons and/or owing to his/her religious identity as a Hindu. This case has been added under the category of a hate crime since the abduction, rape, forced conversion of a minor Hindu girl, followed by her marriage to a Muslim man in Pakistan, starkly illustrates the exploitation of vulnerable Hindu minorities through coercion and manipulation. Such incidents are not isolated cases; rather, they are part of a persistent and troubling pattern in Pakistan, where Hindu minorities-particularly young 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 Hindu communities. Hindus have been subjected to various forms of harassment, marginalisation, and abuse since the country’s inception. The fact that the victim in this case is a minor is critical, as 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, using abduction and coercion tactics, then they are clear instances of hate crimes and clear violations of both human rights and child protection norms. In this case, the victim herself stated that she was abducted, forcibly converted to Islam, raped, and married to a Muslim man named Bashir, all of which showcases the religious animosity directed towards the victim due to her identity. The perpetrators also threatened to kill the Hindu victim’s family if she did not comply with their demands for conversion and marriage. This demonstrates how violent threats are used to coerce vulnerable Hindu girls into submission. Even after the victim was recovered, she and her family continued to receive threats of abduction and murder. This reflects a deep-rooted religious hostility towards Hindus in Pakistan. Furthermore, Hindu activist Shiva Kachhi pointed out that the authorities failed to arrest the perpetrators, highlighting a systematic bias against Hindu victims, while Muslim perpetrators in Pakistan often act with impunity. This reveals a pattern of systematic persecution of the Hindu minority in Pakistan. This case highlights the broader crisis of forced conversions and systemic persecution faced by Hindu minorities in Pakistan. As the motive behind the crime was rooted in religious animosity and hatred, it has been categorised as a hate crime and included in the Hinduphobia Tracker.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 0
- Female 1
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 0
- OBC 0
- General 1
- Unknown 0
Age Group
- Minor 1
- Adult 0
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Unknown
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
