Violence against minorities in Pakistan: Conversions, blasphemy killings on rise - what human rights panel said
HRCP on Thursday released its latest report, Streets of Fear: Freedom of Religion or Belief in 2024/25, documenting violations of freedom of religion or belief (FORB) between 1 July 2024 and 30 June 2025.
The report painted a picture as grim as in previous years, recording targeted killings, forced conversions, mob lynchings, hate speech, desecration of places of worship and extrajudicial killings. It also warned that religious freedom in Pakistan is facing an unprecedented threat.
The HRCP highlighted several cases where individuals were killed over blasphemy accusations, describing the trend as deeply troubling in a country that has already witnessed the assassination of a provincial governor by his own security guard.
Forced conversions
The HRCP report noted that the pattern of minor non-Muslim girls disappearing and later resurfacing after allegedly converting to Islam and marrying Muslim men persisted in 2024/25.
Hindus in Sindh, who form 8.8% of the population, and Christians in Punjab (1.9%), have raised repeated concerns. A fact-finding study found that forced conversions and coerced marriages remain most prevalent among Scheduled Caste Hindus due to poverty and limited social mobility.
The report highlighted the role of cleric-politician Mian Abdul Haq, or Mian Mithu, accused of using his influence to facilitate conversions at his seminary in Ghotki. He was sanctioned by the UK in 2022.
The report also cited cases where police were seen siding with abductors, often claiming it would be 'haram' to return a girl after conversion.
In July 2024, Faisalabad police recovered Christian minor Laiba Suhail, abducted in February and forcibly converted before being married off illegally.
Another girl, Alina, is still missing. In January 2025, a Mirpurkhas court heard a plea from a couple accused of forcing an underage Hindu girl to convert and marry.
Other cases were reported across provinces: in April 2025, 14-year-old a Hindu girl, Chahat disappeared in Quetta and later claimed in a video to have converted, though her parents produced documents proving she was underage.
In May, Hindu Panchayats in Ghotki and Rohri protested the disappearance of a Meghwar teenager in Rohri, fearing abduction for forced conversion.
In June, civil society groups and Hindu Panchayats in Larkana expressed concern over three minor girls and a teenage boy from Shahdadpur allegedly being forced to convert.
The HRCP stressed that such cases continue to deepen insecurity among religious minorities and called for protective measures to safeguard vulnerable children and their families.
Targeting Ahmadiyya community
The report listed multiple killings of Ahmadis: dentist Zakaur Rahman in Lalamusa (July 2024), Tayyab Ahmad in Rawalpindi (December 2024), Amir Hasan in Naukot (December 2024), Laeeq Cheema lynched in Karachi (April 2025), Muhammad Asif in Kasur (April 2025), and senior doctor Mahmood Sheikh in Sargodha (May 2025).
The UN warned, 'We are alarmed by ongoing reports of violence and discrimination against the Ahmadiyya community in Pakistan.'
'According to the data provided by the Ahmadiyya community, 29 Ahmadi places of worship were attacked and damaged during the review period,' the report said.
It further added that in 26 cases, the demolition was carried out by law enforcement agencies.
'These incidents occurred in Okara, Khanewal, Gujranwala, Sialkot, Vehari, Sheikhupura, Gujrat, and Sargodha, among other locations Back in January, a historic Sialkot site linked to Pakistan's first foreign minister Zafarullah Khan was 'reduced to rubble'.
Blasphemy accusations
The report said that the blasphemy law has been often misused to settle personal scores or seek financial gain in Pakistan, where, a 'mere accusation of blasphemy can be a death sentence.'
In September, last year, two men accused of blasphemy were killed while in police custody less than a week apart. One was inexplicably shot and killed in Mirpurkhas during an alleged police encounter, and the other was killed by a police constable inside a police station in Quetta.
On 12 September 2024, constable Saad Khan Sarhadi shot dead Abdul Ali, a blasphemy suspect, inside Quetta's Cantonment Police Station after mobs from religious parties gathered outside demanding his custody. It marked the first such incident in the city where a serving officer killed a suspect in custody. Days later, Ali's family pardoned Sarhadi, while lawyers and a JUI-F senator pledged legal support for him.
Later, on 17 September 2024, Shahnawaz Kunbhar, a civil hospital employee from Umerkot, fled to Karachi after a cleric accused him of posting blasphemous content. He denied the charge in a video message before being arrested by police, who assured his family of protection. Two days later, police claimed he was killed in an encounter, with officers celebrated as heroes.
His family was prevented from burying him by armed mobs, and the body was desecrated.
Following outrage from rights groups, a Sindh police inquiry declared the encounter 'fake.'
The report also showed that the mainstream media largely ignored issues of religious freedom under the period covered. Even the Islamabad High Court's hearings into the 'blasphemy business group,' affecting nearly 400 households and livestreamed for four months, drew little coverage. Likewise, cases of coerced marriages, forced conversions and violence against minorities rarely made headlines.
A worrying trend has emerged in Pakistan, where ultra-right-wing groups are exerting growing pressure on the judiciary and elected officials through propaganda and intimidation, it added.
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