Religious conversions in Pakistan

In Pakistan, religious conversions, both enticed and forced conversions have been reported. Females belonging to religious minority groups, most of whom are underage girls become victims of rape, kidnapping, forced marriage and forced conversion. The Human Rights Council of Pakistan has reported that cases of forced conversion continue to increase in the country.

During Partition

Many Hindus converted to Christianity in Pakistan to escape violence during Partition. Many socioeconomically backward Hindus also converted to Christianity in Pakistan. However, many such backward Hindus who converted to Christianity in Pakistan continue to do the tasks of their forefathers like cleaning clogged sewers and are derogatorily called "choora" as Muslims refuse to do such tasks.

Forced conversion to Islam has been observed in Pakistan since the creation of the country when violence following the 1947 partition took place in the country in which many Hindu and Sikh men and women were forced to convert to Islam. In 1948, an Indian government's spokesman in Delhi had announced that they were negotiating with the Government of Pakistan for early refuge in India of some 70,000 Hindus and 3,000 Sikhs from Bahawalpur State, due to the reports of murders and forced conversions.

Present

Leaders of religious minority groups have raised concerns over increasing cases in which members of non-Muslim communities, generally young girls, were forced to convert to Islam. Forced conversions of Christians to Islam has been reported in Pakistan and hundreds of girls were kidnapped from their Christian families and were forced to marry Muslim men. The Catholic Church in Pakistan has reported that at least 700 Christians are kidnapped annually and many are then forced to convert and marry the kidnapper. The 2009 Gojra riots was a series of violent pogroms against Christian minorities by Muslims. In June 2009, International Christian Concern reported the rape and killing of a Christian man in Pakistan, for refusing to convert to Islam.

The Asian Human Rights Commission report in 2011 noted that the forced conversion to Islam of women from minority religious groups through rape and abduction has reached alarming levels and the offenders who are involved in these activities are shielded by the officials and Muslim fundamentalist groups who see them as providing their service to the cause of increasing the Muslim population. The commission has claimed that 1,800 cases involve kidnapping and forced conversions of Christians every year.

Hindus have been subjected to persecution and forced conversions to Islam in the country. The Pakistan Hindu Council says Hindu girls are kidnapped and forcefully converted to Islam which is why they are forced to seek refuge in the neighbouring country - India. In March 2012, an Indian official at ministry of external affairs in Delhi informed the media that about 8 - 10 Hindu families have migrated to India from Pakistan.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has also condemned increasing cases of forced conversions of Hindus. The police have been uninterested in general when it comes to arresting the alleged culprits.

Historian Hendrik Neubauer attributes forced conversion to Islam and persecution as the reason behind the low population (3,000) of the Kalash tribe in Northern Pakistan. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has also indicated that Muslim clerics are involved in forced conversions of the Kalash tribe.

A thousand girls from minority communities are forced into marriages to Muslims every year according to a report. Amarnath Motumal who works for Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has stated that 20 to 25 Hindu girls were kidnapped and converted every month though the exact number is impossible to estimate. Sadiq Bhanbhro, Researcher on Public Health and Gender-Based Violence at Sheffield Hallam University commented he found reports of 286 girls forcibly converted from 2012 to 2017 in English-language dailies, though this number is likely higher. The 2019 Religious Minorities in Pakistan report compiled by Members of the European Parliament has stated that independent NGOs estimate every year at least 1,000 girls are forcibly converted to Islam, although the number may be probably more due to under-reporting. A Pakistan Muslim League politician has stated that abduction of Hindus and Sikhs is a business in Pakistan, along with conversions of Hindus to Islam. Many Islamic extremists believe that it is an achievement to convert a Hindu into Islam, and to do so can earn one a blessing. Abdul Haq (Mitthu Mian) is a custodian of Bharchindi Shia Dargah, who is well known for subverting the legal process in numerous cases of kidnapping of underage Hindu girls, their forced conversion to Islam and marriage to older men at this dargah, as well as inciting violence against Hindus specially by misusing blasphemy laws.

Firstly underage girls are abducted from their homes or where they work, later re-appearing after having been married off to a Muslim. They are often raped and then forcibly converted to Islam. To prevent her from going back home or reporting the rape to the police, she is forcibly married to the perpetrator. Reports obtained by the NGO Global Human Rights Defence indicate that the perpetrators will often put a fake age of the girl on the marriage certificate to hide that she is underage. When the families of the girl try to report this to the police, they are often met by biased officers who refuse to file an FIR (First Information Report). The conversions are backed by powerful religious instititutions and leaders who also offer incentives to people to convert. Moreover, the perpetrators will often force the victim to sign a report saying that she converted and married on her own free will, hindering the attempts of the family to have their girl returned to them. Additionally, the perpetrators will often file counter-suits against the victim's family for harassment and for attempting to convert the girl back to her former religion.

According to a report from the Movement for Solidarity and Peace also cited by the European Parliament, about 1,000 non-Muslim girls are converted to Islam each year in Pakistan. According to the Pakistan Hindu Council, religious persecution, especially forced conversions, remains the foremost reason for migration of Hindus from Pakistan. Pakistan Hindu Council estimated that about 5000 Hindus migrate from Pakistan to India every year in order to escape religious persecution. Religious institutions like Bharchundi Sharif and Sarhandi Pir support forced conversions and are known to have support and protection of ruling political parties of Sindh. This practice is being reported increasingly in the districts of Tharparkar, Umerkot and Mirpur Khas in Sindh.

A total of 57 Hindus converted in Pasrur during May 14–19, 2010. On May 14, 35 Hindus of the same family were forced to convert by their employer because his sales dropped after Muslims started boycotting his eatable items as they were prepared by Hindus as well as their persecution by the Muslim employees of neighbouring shops according to their relatives. Since the impoverished Hindu had no other way to earn and needed to keep the job to survive, they converted. 14 members of the another family converted on May 17 since no one was employing them, later another Hindu man and his family of eight under pressure from Muslims to avoid their land being grabbed.

On 12 October 2012, Ryan Stanton, a Christian boy of 16 went into hiding after being accused of blasphemy and after his home was ransacked by a crowd. Stanton stated that he had been framed because he had rebuffed pressures to convert to Islam. Based, in part, on such incidents, Pakistan was recommended by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) in May 2006 to be designated as a "Country of Particular Concern" (CPC) by the Department of State.

Rinkle Kumari, a 19-year Pakistani student, Lata Kumari, and Asha Kumari, a Hindu working in a beauty parlor, were allegedly forced to convert from Hinduism to Islam. Their cases were appealed all the way to the Supreme Court of Pakistan. The appeal was admitted but remained unheard ever after. Rinkle was abducted by a gang and "forced" to convert to Islam, before being head shaved. Afterwards, Rinkle reportedly stated that she will stay with her husband rather than return home - her husband and the son of Mitthu Mian met her several times just before her final statement in the Supreme Court. In March 2019, two Hindu minor girls were allegedly abducted on the eve of Holi and forcibly converted to Islam in Dharki, Ghotki District, Sindh. A video showed them being married by a Muslim cleric and another also emerged showing the girls claiming they converted out of their own will. Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has ordered an investigation into the accusations. On 11 April, Pakistan High Court let the Hindu girls live with their husbands, stated both teenage girls are adult and marry to men with their own will, parents of both girls accepted the verdict and asked for more time. The court gave the verdict that the Hindu girls were not forcefully converted, abducted and they converted to Islam voluntarily and on their own will.

In 2017, the Sikh community in Hangu district of Pakistan's Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province alleged that they were “being forced to convert to Islam” by a government official. Farid Chand Singh, who filed the complaint, has claimed that Assistant Commissioner Tehsil Tall Yaqoob Khan was allegedly forcing Sikhs to convert to Islam and the residents of Doaba area are being tortured religiously. According to reports, about 60 Sikhs of Doaba had demanded security from the administration.

Many Hindus voluntarily convert to Islam for easily getting Watan Cards and National Identification Cards. These converts were also given land and money. For example, 428 poor Hindus in Matli were converted between 2009 and 2011 by the Madrassa Baitul Islam, a Deobandi seminary in Matli, which pays off the debts of Hindus converting to Islam. Another example is the conversion of 250 Hindus to Islam in Chohar Jamali area in Thatta. Conversions are also carried out by ex-Hindu Baba Deen Mohammad Shaikh mission which converted 108,000 people to Islam since 1989.

In 2017, a human rights activist claimed that, "At least 25 conversions of young Hindu girls and women take place every month in Umerkot's Kunri and Samaro talukas alone. This area is so deprived and the people, most of whom belong to the scheduled castes, are so powerless that the families know there’s no use in them reporting forced conversions to the police, let alone raising a hue and cry." In 2014 alone, 265 legal cases of forced conversion were reported, mostly involving Hindu girls.

In July 2019, Sindh-based activist Duo Kalhoro stated that "Current statistics estimate that every month, 20 Hindu girls are abducted and converted to Islam" in her province. She added that "Most of the victims are under the age of 18. Some as young as 11 years old. Once the girls have been married off and converted, they are prohibited from contacting their families, leaving them even more vulnerable to exploitation."

A Pakistani court sent a 15-yr-old Hindu girl to a women's protection centre after her forced conversion and marriage to a muslim man. A Pakistani court ruled that the minor Hindu girl can go back to her family after the victim's family paid for a surety bond of Rs 2 lakh.

In January 2020, a Pakistani Hindu bride was abducted, converted to Islam, and forcibly married to a Muslim with the help of conniving policemen.

In February, 2020, a 14-year-old Christian girl was allegedly abducted, converted to Islam and married off to a Muslim man in Karachi. However in the court, the judges maintained that the girl has already had her first menstrual cycle and under the Islamic Shariah Law she should be considered an adult, making her marriage with her abductor legal and justified.

Response

Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) called forced conversions to Islam as "un-Islamic". The Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan objected to a bill aimed at stopping forced conversions of minorities because the bill would not recognize conversions by those under the age of 18. In 2019, the lawmakers of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) turned down a bill against forced conversions.

In 2015 the Sindh Assembly passed The Sindh Criminal Law (Protection of Minorities) Bill, 2015 that provided for forcibly converting a minor a punishable offence. However the ulema termed it against the basic principles of Islam . Then state governor refused to ratify the bill.

References

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