- By Supratik Das
- Tue, 09 Dec 2025 05:56 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
Panic and outrage have gripped Karachi’s Sindhi Mohalla in Sher Shah after a Pakistani Hindu woman and her minor daughter were abducted by unidentified armed men on Saturday, prompting renewed concerns over the safety of minority families in Sindh. According to the family, three gunmen forced the woman, Rani, into a white Alto moments after she stepped out of her home. Her young daughter was taken along with her. Both remain missing.
Family Fears Forced ‘Conversion’, ‘Marriage’
Shiva Kaachi, a civil rights activist for the Hindu community in the Sindh province, said Rani and her minor daughter were still missing, and her family feared she would be forcibly converted to Islam and then married off to one of the abductors.
"We have managed to get a FIR registered, but it was a deeply alarming situation the way three unidentified armed men abducted the Hindu mother and her daughter," he said. He appealed to the senior police officials to take notice and take action, as Hindu girls and women were now being frequently abducted and forcibly converted to Islam and then married off to Muslim men who, in most cases, are much older than them.
In another incident that came on the same day in Umerkot, armed men tried to kidnap a newlywed Hindu woman identified as Bhagvi. She was on her way home along with her husband when the attackers stopped their vehicle. The locals intervened and managed to send the armed men fleeing, saving what could have been another case of forced conversion.
Rising Minority Concerns Reflect Systemic Pattern
International organisations and bodies, including UN Special Rapporteurs, have repeatedly flagged the growing pattern of abductions, forced conversions, and forced marriages targeting Hindu, Christian, and Sikh girls in Pakistan. A report by the US-based Global Hindu Temple Network, or GHTN, finds that the threats faced by minority girls are both routine and deeply structural, with 1,000 cases of abduction and forced conversion estimated to take place every year.
The brutality has been seen in several high-profile cases. The case of Mehak Kumari, a 15-year-old Hindu girl who was threatened with beheading after reporting her coerced conversion, remains one of the most-quoted examples of risks faced by minority children. The steep rise of such cases highlights the failed administrative policies and impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators in the heart of the nation.
With inputs from agency.