Case Summary

In Pakistan's Sindh, in June 2025, four Hindu siblings, comprising three sisters and their male cousin, were abducted by their Muslim teachers and forcibly converted to Islam. The forced conversion of the Hindu siblings was downplayed by the Pakistani media, including ARY News, which is banned in India for its anti-India propaganda. ARY News completely whitewashed the incident, describing it as a “willing embrace of Islam”. According to media reports, the victims of the forced conversion were identified as 22-year-old Jiya Bai, 20-year-old Diya Bai, 16-year-old Disha alias Dasina Bai, and 13-year-old Ganesh alias Harjeet Kumar. They were abducted and forcibly converted to Islam by Farhan Khaskheli, their computer teacher, and his accomplice, Zulfikar Khaskheli. Despite the family’s assertion that the victims were abducted, brainwashed, and coerced into converting, the court ruled that the two adult women would stay in a shelter home in Karachi and said that the adult women were free to choose their faith, thereby legitimising the forced conversion. The minors, however, were returned to their family, but only after recording statements that they had embraced Islam “willingly”. Additionally, the court imposed a mandatory deposit of 1 crore PKR to prevent the parents from converting the minors back to Hinduism. The court even discharged the two accused, Farhan Khaskheli and Zulfiqar Khaskheli, from kidnapping charges. Throughout this matter, the Pakistani media played a significant role in downplaying and whitewashing the actions of the Muslim perpetrators and the Pakistani state. ARY News, a notoriously anti-India and anti-Hindu outlet, reported the incident under the headline “Shahdadpur: Four Hindu siblings embrace Islam in Sindh”. By doing so, they sought to imply that the Hindu siblings, including minors, had converted by their own wish, thereby minimising the gravity of the forced conversion of Hindu victims. ARY News stated that the victims “willingly embraced Islam without any coercion”. This directly contradicted statements from the parents of the victims and local sources, who clearly stated that the children were abducted, forcibly converted to Islam, and subjected to brainwashing and coercion. In effect, ARY News sided with the Muslim perpetrators and the anti-Hindu Pakistani state. Notably, ARY News is no stranger to promoting religious propaganda. The ARY Network has a long history of advancing anti-Hindu narratives. ARY was the exclusive partner in Pakistan for Aamir Khan, Rajkumar Hirani, and Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s PK, in which they made a derogatory portrayal of Hindu deities and mocked Hinduism. In 2013, ARY even prompted an anti-India Netflix series named 'Waar', which peddled a pro-Pakistan and anti-India narrative. Waar glorified the Pakistani army and portrayed Indians as notorious villains. Reports also suggest that ARY is closely aligned with Pakistan’s spy agency, the ISI, and has repeatedly promoted anti-Hindu and anti-India narratives.

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Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the hate tracker under the prime category- Hate speech against Hindus. Within this, the sub-category selected is- Anti-Hindu subversion and prejudice. The tertiary category selected is- 'Anti-Hindu fake news or downplaying'. Hate speech is defined as any speech, gesture, conduct, writing, or display that is prejudicial against a specific individual and/or group of people, which is leading to or may lead to violence, prejudicial action or hate against that individual and/or group. Media plays a specific and overarching reach in perpetuating prejudicial attitudes towards a community owing to unfair, untrue coverage and/or misrepresentation/misinterpretation, selective coverage and/or omission of facts of/pertaining to issues affecting a specific religious group. This type of bias can dehumanise the victim group, making it easier for others to justify harmful actions against them, which aligns with the objectives of hate speech laws aimed at preventing such harm. It is often observed that the media takes a prejudicial stand against the Hindu community driven by their need to shield the aggressor community which happens to be a numeric minority, however, is the one perpetrating violence against Hindus. For example, the media is often quick to contextualise religiously motivated crimes against Hindus, omit or misrepresent facts that point towards religiously motivated hate crimes, justify and/or downplay religiously motivated hate crimes or simply present fake news to stereotype Hindus. Such media bias leads to the denial of persecution and is often used to dehumanise Hindus, leading to justification for violence against them. For example, the media covered several fake allegations of Hindus targeting Muslims and forcing them to chant Jai Shree Ram. Most of these cases were proved false and fabricated after police investigation. These fake news reports were subsequently never retracted or clarified. Such fake news led to the justification of violence and dehumanisation of Hindus based on the argument that since Hindus targeted Muslims and forced them to chant Jai Shree Ram, the dehumanisation of Hindus and violence against them was par for the course and merely a retaliation. Such media bias leads to prejudicial portrayal of Hindus and offers a justification for violence against them and therefore, is considered hate speech under this category. This case involves the downplaying and whitewashing of the abduction and forced conversion of four Hindu siblings in Sindh, Pakistan. This instance starkly demonstrates how anti-Hindu hate speech and the minimisation of religious persecution of the Hindu minority are perpetuated by the Pakistani media. ARY News, in particular, played a main role in framing the incident not as a violation of the religious rights of the Hindu community, but as a voluntary act of religious conversion. In doing so, they effectively erased the trauma and coercion suffered by the Hindu victims and their families. ARY News presented the conversion as a “willing embrace”, despite the victims’ minority status and the well-documented pattern of such cases involving duress and manipulation of the Hindu victims. This narrative not only downplays the gravity of the crime but also serves to normalise and legitimise the forced conversion of Hindus in Pakistan. Such acts are a result of deep-seated bias against the Hindu community. This coverage by ARY News is not an isolated incident, but part of a longstanding pattern of anti-Hindu and anti-India rhetoric. The network has a documented history of promoting Islamist propaganda and maliciously vilifying Hindus and India. Such content fosters an environment in which anti-Hindu sentiment is normalised and even encouraged. Furthermore, ARY’s close alignment with Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the ISI, further underscores its role as a mouthpiece for state-sanctioned narratives targeting Hindus and India. Instances like this, where atrocities against Hindus are whitewashed, exemplify a broader pattern of anti-Hindu hate speech and the systemic downplaying of religious persecution. Such whitewashed reporting of crimes of forced conversion of Hindu minorities erases the suffering of the victims and perpetuates a climate of impunity for such crimes. By whitewashing this crime, ARY not only reveals the low standard of its journalism but also its malicious intent to silence any public discourse on the systematic persecution of the Hindu community in Pakistan. Such actions undermine the credibility of the Hindu victims and their families, and further stigmatise those who seek justice and recognition for hate crimes against Hindus. This pattern of denial and deflection is a hallmark of anti-Hindu hatred and bias. Therefore, this case is being categorised under the hate crime database.