Human rights body flags surge in violence, forced conversions of minorities in Pakistan

Islamabad, Aug 20 The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has sounded the alarm over a disturbing increase in violence against religious minorities, citing a spate of targeted killings of Ahmadiyyas, along with forced conversions and underage marriages of Hindu and Christian girls, particularly in the Punjab and Sindh provinces, local media reported.

In a seminar held on Tuesday, the HRCP launched its report titled “Streets of Fear: Freedom of Religion or Belief in 2024/25”, which documented a deeply troubling year for religious freedom and minority rights in Pakistan.

“The violence against the minorities has increased. There have been numerous targeted killings of Ahmadiyyas. In one instance, a man was lynched just a short distance from a sizeable contingent of police in the middle of a busy market of Pakistan’s largest city. Places of worship have been partially or wholly demolished by law enforcement agencies, despite some of them having the protection of a high court verdict. Several incidents of grave desecration were reported from all over the country,” read the report.

According to the report, the Christian and Hindu minority rights activists have repeatedly raised alarms about the forced conversion of young girls in Punjab and Sindh. Citing numerous instances, the report revealed that most of the girls allegedly abducted or lured into leaving their homes were under 18, which clearly "violated the federal and provincial minimum age requirements for marriage".

In some cases, it added that there is a clear pattern of abducting girls and then coercing them into marriage after their conversion to Islam.

The rights body noted that the pattern of non-Muslim minor girls going missing and then reappearing after a few days, having converted to Islam and married Muslim men, has persisted throughout 2024-2025. It emphasised that "Hindus in Sindh, who make up 8.8 per cent of the province’s population, and Christians, who constitute 1.9 per cent in Punjab", have repeatedly raised this issue.

“Hate speech has been on the rise. Death threats were directed at the chief justice of the Supreme Court when the court granted bail to an Ahmadiyya individual. An elected senator was publicly insulted, particularly by some pro-right-wing social media channels, which also questioned his patriotism when he spoke out in defence of religious minorities. The blatant ways in which these hateful comments were made were unsettling,” the report detailed.

The HRCP raised concern about the increasing tilt of the country’s bar associations towards positions aligned with extremist religious groups, calling it a trend that undermines the independence of the legal profession. The report also documented allegations of collusion by state institutions in cases where several hundred young men and women were entrapped in accusations of blasphemy and extorted in Pakistan.

Reiterating its earlier recommendations, the human rights body urged the Pakistani government to urgently establish an independent statutory national commission dedicated to the rights of minorities, ensuring equal representation for all religious communities.

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