Married Hindu woman kidnapped, forcibly converted and married off to Muslim man in Pakistan

Case ID : ea34deb | Location : Digri, Sindh, Pakistan | Date of Incident : Tue, 27 May, 2025

Case ID : ea34deb

Digri, Sindh, Pakistan

27 May, 2025

Married Hindu woman kidnapped, forcibly converted and married off to Muslim man in Pakistan

Predatory Proselytisation

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Case Summary

In the Dighri area of Mirpurkhas, in the southern Sindh province of Pakistan, a married Hindu woman was abducted by a Muslim man named Shehbaz Khashkheli and his accomplices. She was subsequently forcibly converted to Islam and was married off to Shehbaz. Following the woman’s abduction, forced conversion, and marriage, the victim’s husband and her four children approached the office of the NGO ‘Darawar Ittehad Pakistan’ in Mirpurkhas to file a case. Shankar Das, the victim’s husband, and the woman’s children reached out to Shiva Kacchi, head of an NGO that advocates for the welfare and rights of minorities, especially Hindus. The victim’s husband stated that a week ago, Shehbaz and his associates kidnapped his wife from near their home. He further said, “After two days, they took her to a religious place and converted her to Islam, and then Shehbaz married her without her will or consent. Is this justice for minorities in Pakistan?” Shiva Kacchi stated that the woman was abducted, forcibly converted to Islam, and married to a Muslim man. He further said, “The police have not filed an FIR yet and are not cooperating. Now we will approach the court.” The abducted woman’s family also appealed to the government and authorities to recover her. This case is a stark reminder of the persistent persecution faced by Hindu minorities in Pakistan, marked by systemic discrimination, violence, and forced conversions. Hindus, particularly women and 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 attack. 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. 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. This case qualifies as a hate crime since it involves the abduction, forced conversion, and marriage of a married Hindu woman in Pakistan. The woman was forcibly abducted by a Muslim man and pressured to convert to Islam and discard her Hindu faith. This constitutes a clear violation of her religious freedom and personal agency. Such actions are not only criminal in nature but are also motivated by hostility towards the victim’s religious background. When a Hindu woman, already married within her faith, is subjected to such coercive conversion and marriage, it becomes a direct attack on her identity and fundamental rights, making it a significant case of religiously motivated hate crime. This incident is emblematic of a longstanding and deeply entrenched pattern of persecution faced by Hindu minorities in Pakistan. It mirrors the widespread and well-documented practices of targeted violence, abductions, and forced conversions that have afflicted the Hindu community across various regions of the country. Reports and human rights documentation consistently highlight how Hindu women are especially vulnerable to such attacks, often with little to no intervention from authorities, and how these crimes are frequently facilitated or ignored by local institutions, including the police. These actions are not random, isolated instances of crime, but are premeditated attacks on Hindus, stemming from religious animosity towards their faith. Such crimes are committed with the intent to strip Hindus of their religious identity, thereby subjecting them to exploitation and forced conversion to Islam. As this incident is a result of religious animosity and intolerance towards Hindus, it is being added to the hate crime database.