The Islamic Republic of Pakistan has since its very creation in 1947 been persecuting its Hindu and religious minorities at an alarming scale. Forced marriage and conversion to Islam, rape, discrimination, desecration of temples and violence against Hindus by Islamic fanatics in Pakistan has been a cruel “normal” in Pakistan. Shedding light on this disturbing pattern in Sindh, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) published its fact-finding report titled “Exodus: Is the Hindu Community Leaving Sindh?” on 23rd January 2025.
The report highlighted that deteriorating law and order, Islamist violence, and economic challenges coupled with climate conditions are among the key factors that have compelled the poor and vulnerable Hindus to migrate from Sindh, a province with the highest concentration of Hindus in Pakistan.
Tracing the roots of migration of Pakistani Hindus
At the onset, the report mentioned a 2014 statement by Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) leader Ramesh Wankwani in Pakistan’s parliament wherein he said that 5000 Hindus annually migrate to India due to religious persecution. The report then highlighted the issue of Hindus migrating from Sindh’s Kashmore district to India due to “fears of kidnapping by bandits”. HRCP found that despite there being reports of 300 Hindus migrating from Kashmore, the Pakistan government blamed ‘conspiracy’ against Pakistan instead of taking necessary action.
“According to a recent press report, more than 300 Hindus from Kashmore district have migrated to India due to lawlessness and fears of kidnapping by bandits. Despite such alarming reports, government responses typically downplay the issue, framing it as a ‘conspiracy’ against Pakistan rather than addressing the underlying causes. This response reflects a broader sense of denial,” the report says adding that estimating the exact scale of migration is hard to determine due to underreporting and intentional concealment of information by the authorities.
The report recorded that migration of Pakistani Hindus is not a new phenomenon, rather a 1986 incident wherein 34 convicted prisoners involved in the abduction of Hindu traders for ransom escaped from jail and the demolition of the Babri structure erected atop Shri Ram Janmbhoomi in Ayodhya city of India’s Uttar Pradesh in 1992 served as a catalyst for the migration of the persecuted community.
“One of the pivotal moments cited by these leaders is the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, India, on 6 December 1992. This incident provoked widespread anti-Hindu violence in Pakistan, with attacks on Hindu temples and places of worship by the Muslim population. This surge of violence in response to events in India became a catalyst, intensifying the trend of Pakistani Hindus emigrating to India,” the HRCP report said.
“However, the roots of migration extend further back. A significant, though less well-known, catalysing event occurred in 1986 when as many as 34 convicted prisoners, some of them infamous for kidnapping Hindu traders for ransom in northern Sindh, escaped from Sukkur Jail. ‘The jailbreak created a climate of fear among the Hindu traders. The incidents of kidnappings for ransom forced many to emigrate to India as their only safe option,’ said a Hindu trader in Ghotki,” it continued.

Notably, while the Pakistani Human Rights Commission finds that the said 1986 incident and the demolition of the illegal Babri structure in 1992 were a major trigger for Hindu migration to escape persecution, OpIndia earlier reported how even before the Babri demolition, hundreds of temples were demolished by Islamists. Since 1990, nearly 95% of Hindu temples have been destroyed, usurped by Islamists or repurposed by Pakistani governments as mosques, madrasas, chicken shops, cattle farms, and sometimes even toilets.
Key factors behind Hindus migrating from Sindh
The HRCP report found that while incidents of large-scale violence against Hindus have become less, the minority community lives in fear of kidnapping for ransom and targeted attacks. The report said that Hindus in Sindh live in constant fear and insecurity since law enforcement in the province is “severely compromised”.
“In 2023, an HRCP fact-finding report observed that northern Sindh was riddled with organized crime, militant violence, poor governance, and entrenched feudal power structures. The report highlighted significant shortcomings in the police, judicial, and revenue systems, presenting formidable challenges to maintaining law and order. Tribal feuds further destabilize the region, paralysing socioeconomic development and creating a perilous environment for all residents, particularly for the Hindu minority,” the fact-finding report reads.
The HRCP pointed out that kidnapping of Hindus and extortion is rampant in Sindh, particularly in northern Sindh. The Hindu community, especially the so-called “upper caste” Hindus are targeted both for their religious identity as well as for their wealth.
“Hindus feel frightened and insecure due to the rise in kidnappings for ransom by dacoits operating from the Katcha [riverine] areas’ was a recurring concern in interviews with Hindu community leaders and rights activists in northern Sindh. Interviews reveal that the Hindu community is often targeted for its economic standing. In districts such as Ghotki, Jacobabad and Kashmore, the upper-caste Hindu community dominates trade, markets and transportation,” the report says.

Furthermore, the HRCP found that the law enforcement authorities and the government have monumentally failed to protect the “wealthy” Hindus in northern Sindh, making them an easy target for bandits and tribal chieftains. To save themselves, several Hindus are forced to make these tribal chieftains business partners who take about 20 and 30 per cent share in profits and their names are displayed on the boards and banners of Hindu shops and businesses to deter bandits.
However, the HRCP stresses, “desperate strategy underscores the deep-seated insecurity and lack of faith in official law enforcement channels. The fear and uncertainty extend beyond northern Sindh, spilling over into cities like Sukkur, Karachi, and Hyderabad.”
Notably, the Pakistani bandits are hardcore Islamic fanatics and regularly force Hindu girls to convert to Islam. In April 2024, Pakistani senator Danesh Kumar Palyani raised this issue in the Pakistani parliament and said, “You see in Sindh, bandits are forcefully converting our Hindu girls to Islam. Bandits in mud forts areas kidnap people but Bandits in settled areas are forcing girls to convert their religion. However, Pakistan gives us the right that no one should force anyone else to convert.
“The daughters of Hindus are not a booty that someone should forcibly change their religion, Hindu girls are being forcibly converted to the religion in Sindh. It has been two years since innocent Priya Kumari was abducted,” he said on X.
The daughters of Hindus are not a booty that someone should forcibly change their religion, Hindu girls are being forcibly converted to religion in Sindh. It has been two years since innocent Priya Kumari was abducted. The government does not take action against these influential… pic.twitter.com/mhl1zArNAO
— Senator Danesh Kumar Palyani (@palyani) April 30, 2024
Events in India trigger Islamists in Pakistan to attack Hindus for simply existing
It must be recalled that in 2023, a Pakistani married woman named Seema Haider illegally entered India to marry her Hindu lover Sachin. The couple received massive media attention while many raised concerns over her presence in India. While the Pakistani woman continues to live peacefully in a Hindu-majority India, her departure from Pakistan came with unsettling consequences for Pakistani Hindus. The Islamist bandits in northern Sindh abducted threatened to destroy Hindu temples to avenge Seema Haider’s voluntary exit from Pakistan. Besides the threats to attack temples, these Islamist dacoits in Kashmore and Ghotki also took several Hindus, including women and children hostage. The HRCP report says that a rocket was fired at a Hindu temple in Kashmore’s Ghauspur.

“…dacoits in Kashmore and Ghotki districts allegedly took several Hindu community members hostage, including women and children. This alarming situation drew attention in the provincial assembly when members were informed that a rocket had been fired at a temple in the Ghauspur area of Kashmore,” the report said adding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi consecrating Ram Mandir in Ayodhya last year also exacerbated the Hindu community’s fear and anxieties. This was apparently because Hindus in India reclaiming their temple offended Islamists everywhere in the world including India’s hostile neighbour.
Alongside, the fear of Islamist bandits, the Hindu community in Sindh also faced troubles during the wave of terrorism against Shias and suicide bombings on their mosques between 2013 to 2017. Although in this case Hindus were not directly targeted, the HRCP found that Hindus were asked by the local police to heighten the security of their temples in Jacobabad, Shikarpur, and other areas due to the threat of suicide attacks by local Taliban groups.
The HRCP report said that while the killing of Hafeez Pandrani, a dreaded terrorist in 2019 halted violence, “some Hindu families migrated to major Pakistani cities such as Karachi and Hyderabad, while others crossed the border to India.”
Religiously motivated and blasphemy-related violence against Hindus in Sindh
With a significant Hindu population, Sindh has been an epicentre of anti-Hindu violence. In June 2024, Islamist miscreants vandalised a dilapidated temple of Lord Ram in the Kacchi Colony in an overnight attack. They desecrated the Hindu temple and stole idols of Hindu deities and several copies of Geeta, the Holy Book despite the temple doors being locked. They also covered revered Hindu religious symbols including Om with spray paint. Before this, Islamists looted and desecrated an ancient Hindu temple in Sochi Pada, Tando Adam which falls in Sindh’s Nawabshah district. OpIndia has reported numerous such incidents over the years from not only Sindh but other provinces of Pakistan.
Unsurprisingly though, HRCP went from acknowledging that Hindus institutionalised discrimination, arbitrary blasphemy accusations and forced conversions, to asserting that there is no organised campaign targeting the Hindu community. However, the pattern of Islamists targeting Hindus for their religious identity, forced conversions for example, indicates that there is an organised campaign against Hindus. There have been numerous cases with modus operandi wherein Hindu girls including minors are abducted, forced to convert to Islam and marry abductors then compelled to make a declaration of conversion out of free will. Later, the courts in most cases also support the perpetrator instead of the victim thus facilitating Islamist designs of forced conversion and demographic alteration.
“Despite public claims of social cohesion, these minorities face continuous threats due to institutionalized discrimination, arbitrary blasphemy accusations, and forced conversions. However, most respondents contend that there is no organized campaign targeting Hindus and other minorities in the region. Nonetheless, the environment of fear and suspicion remains a significant concern,” the HRCP report said.

The report further pointed out that allegations of blasphemy though often unfounded and driven by personal vendetta have been a major source of distress for Hindus and other religious minorities. The fear of being falsely accused of blasphemy by Muslims has compelled Hindus to leave Sindh altogether for either Karachi or India.
“In the face of blasphemy accusations, some Hindus choose to leave Sindh altogether. A Hindu Panchayat leader in Ghotki revealed that two community members had fled to India after being accused of blasphemy. Initially believed to have relocated to Karachi, it was later discovered that they had settled in Indore, India,” the report said.
Forced conversions and marriages: The unheard ordeal of Hindu women in Sindh
The Pakistan Human Rights Commission report highlighted that Hindu women in Sindh grapple with perpetual threats of harassment, kidnapping and forced conversion forcing the Hindu families to discontinue the education of their daughters and move to safer areas often to larger cities and sometimes to India.
Recalling a disturbing case, a local activist Panu Aqil said, “At a wedding, a tribal chieftain’s son inappropriately touched a Hindu bride, causing deep humiliation. Unable to retaliate, the family quietly moved to India within three months.”

The HRCP found that forced conversions and marriages have been a systematic issue in Sindh Ghotki being an epicentre. In addition to highlighting several high-profile cases of forced conversion of Hindu girls to Islam and marriage to Muslim men, the HRCP particularly mentioned Islamist Mian Abdul Haq alias Mian Mithu.
“Mian Mithu stands accused of leveraging his influence to facilitate the forced conversions and marriages of underage Hindu girls. His seminary, Dargah Bharchundi Shareef in Daharki, Ghotki, is frequently cited as a key location where such abductions and conversions allegedly take place. While Mian Mithu maintains that these conversions and marriages are voluntary, this claim is vehemently contested by Hindu community leaders. They argue that the girls, often minors, are too young to make such life-altering decisions and are pressured or manipulated into conversion. The complete absence of similar cases involving Hindu boys casts further doubt on the legitimacy of these conversions,” the report reads.
Furthermore, it was found that even though the Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act 2013 sets the legal marriage age at 18, its weak enforcement enabled Islamists to marry off Hindu girls in the Punjab province where the legal marriage age is 16. The report mentioned the cases of Reena and Raveena wherein despite their families appealing that they be returned to them, the Islamabad High Court ordered that the girls who were abducted, forcefully converted to Islam and married off to their abductors to stay with their Muslim abductors-turned-husbands— Safdar Ali and Barkat Ali.
The report further pointed out that the ‘upper caste’ Hindus have better socioeconomic standing and resources allowing them to raise the issue of forced conversions, and violence against Hindus, however, since Dalit Hindus are not well represented and lack resources to raise their issues more effectively, they do not receive much media attention, parliamentary and civil society clout.
Moreover, the report suggested that the vulnerability of Scheduled Caste Hindus is exploited by Islamic organisations and individuals sometimes they are denied some religious rights by ‘upper caste’ Hindus or at unaffordable costs while the Muslim community discriminates against them. The report mentioned a 2021 case incident wherein local Muslims in Jacobabad’s Thull town banned SC Hindus from burying their dead in a shared graveyard.
These marginalised people are then lured by Islamists to their religion while similar attempts are also made by Christian, Sikh and Ahmadi missionaries.
Economic hardships have also been a major factor behind Hindus migrating from Sindh. The HRCP report says that while unemployment, inflation and related issues are not unique to Hindus but are faced by the wider Pakistani population, these issues coupled with fear of persecution due to their social and religious identity worsen things for them making their migration about “more than just seeking better opportunities.”
The Hindu traders in Sindh explore opportunities for investment and relocation to India during their religious or business visits to the neighbouring country. This is due to the fact that unlike the situation in Pakistan where they are harassed by Muslim business partners who often refuse to repay loans and even local electricity bodies who hand inflated bills selectively to Hindu traders, in India they feel a certain sense of peace and security. In addition, extremely hot climatic conditions in Sindh also drive Hindus to migrate to other locations including India as unbearably hot conditions adversely affect agricultural productivity, which is a major source of livelihood for Sindhi Hindus.

According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Hindus in Sindh practice internal migration, especially to cities like Karachi where they find comparatively better educational opportunities and safety. While those who remain in their own cities prefer to reside in gated communities, colonies and apartment towers in urban areas to have a sense of safety and community. The HRCP report said that Hindus have limited options since they lack any significant political influence and to highlight their grievances they take out non-violent protests, shutter strikes, and hunger strikes. Hindus lamented that in the wake of violent threats, they approach the police and government to protect them, however, the Pakistani criminal justice system leaves them frustrated since the authorities remain reluctant in acting against tribal chieftains and criminals. In such cases, Hindus are forced to negotiate with their kidnappers.
India’s CAA becomes a ray of hope for Pakistani Hindus to have a safer and more dignified life that their homeland failed to provide
Enacted in 2019 and implemented in March 2024, India’s Citizenship Amendment Act has been a major driving factor for Pakistani Hindus, particularly those from Sindh to relocate to India, gain Indian citizenship and live a dignified and safe life here. Although CAA provides a fast-track path to citizenship for non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan who had entered India before December 2014, the HRCP report says that “Pakistani Hindus continue to arrive on long-term visas, allowing five years of residency and a potential pathway to citizenship after meeting certain criteria.”
Highlighting the impact of CAA on Sindhi Hindu refugees, the HRCP report said, “In Madhya Pradesh, a significant number of these refugees have been granted citizenship. NDTV reported in 2021 on a family from Jacobabad that had received citizenship certificates in Indore, reflecting a broader trend where approximately 2,000 Hindu refugees from Sindh obtained Indian citizenship over the past five years, with 1,200 more applications pending.”
HRCP’s recommendations to Central and Sindh governments to address issues faced by Hindus
The Pakistani Human Rights Commission though it failed to make a single mention of the word Islamist or Islamic threat to Hindus, made certain recommendations to the federal government led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the Sindh government led by Murad Ali Shah. The commission said that authorities should collect credible data on the migration of Hindu individuals. It also stressed the necessity to strengthen law enforcement presence in areas with high violence against minorities, deploying specialized units. The HRCP recommended that dedicated police units for the Katcha areas, equipped with modern resources and free from political interference should be set up.
In addition, the investigation and prosecution of crimes against minorities, ensuring swift and fair justice in northern Sindh should be prioritised. One of the key recommendations included providing protection to Hindu-owned businesses that feel compelled to align with powerful tribal and influential leaders and pay them as a means of ensuring their security.
“Establish independent oversight mechanisms for impartial law enforcement, with regular human rights training for police, particularly with respect to—and sensitivity for—the rights of religious minorities. Enact and enforce legislation against forced conversions and underage marriages, with stringent penalties and support for victims. Foster dialogue between the government, civil society, Hindu leaders, and religious authorities to address community needs. Develop economic plans for minority-populated areas in Sindh, focusing on infrastructure and skills development. Promote political representation for minorities at both local and national levels to ensure their voices are heard and concerns addressed within the political system,” the HRCP recommended.

The Pakistani government, courts and the administration in Sindh have so far failed to protect Hindus from Islamists in Pakistan, the rampancy of unchecked forced conversion of Hindu women, violence and discrimination against Hindus demonstrates the same. Majorly due to these factors not Sindhi but Hindus in other parts of Pakistan are also forced to search for safer avenues and often migrate to India. This, however, is high time for Pakistan to ensure that the Hindu minorities in Pakistan can lead a secure and dignified life in their homeland and a good start towards this could be with the implementation of the recommendations made by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.