Islamabad, Oct 16 (SocialNews.XYZ) Pakistan’s religious minorities continue to face systematic persecution, discrimination and denial of equal rights, with the abduction and forced marriages of Hindu and Christian girls, blasphemy cases and extremist attacks highlighting persistent failures to protect vulnerable communities, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has warned.
In its latest report titled 'Sanctuary Denied: Freedom of religion or belief in 2025/26', the HRCP said that girls from Christian and Hindu communities continued to face abduction and forced marriage, compounded by poverty and inadequate police responses.
“Girls from minority communities continued to disappear and be coerced into wedlock by older Muslim men. An underage Christian girl’s ordeal is included in the report alongside that of Hindu girls. Weak police response and poverty worsened the struggles of the victims and their families. Alarmingly, a Hindu human rights activist posted on a social platform about alleged threats from a right-wing party for his activism against forced marriages of Hindu girls in Sindh," the rights body stated.
Citing Hindu minority rights activist Faqir Shiva Kachhi from Pakistan’s Sindh province, the HRCP said he has been fighting for the rights of minor Hindu girls, particularly those from lower-caste communities, against forced conversions for nearly a decade.
Referring to data provided by Kachhi, the HRCP said 36 underage Hindu girls were abducted in 2025, while 32 such cases were reported in the first seven months of 2026.
“And these are the ones we know of. There might have been countless others,” HRCP quoted Kachhi as saying.
Highlighting police’s reluctance to act promptly, he further said, “We have to stage sit-ins in front of the police station and superintendent’s office just to get an FIR registered.”
The report highlighted persistent misuse of blasphemy laws in Pakistan, noting that hundreds of people accused of blasphemy remain in legal limbo, while the alleged perpetrators of an organised entrapment network have yet to be investigated.
It also documented attacks on the Ahmadiyya community, including two extremist attacks in Chenab Nagar, alongside increasingly overt attempts to exclude Ahmadis from public and commercial life.
“The weaponisation of blasphemy law continued during the reporting period, with recurring patterns of personal vendetta, extortion and misguided religiosity driving the accusations. Although religious minorities are common targets, an influential scholar of the majority religion was also accused of blasphemy after making comments about the Christian faith,” the report mentioned.
The HRCP said that the discriminatory employment practices, the Islamisation of school curricula and the marginalisation of minority concerns in mainstream media further undermine equal citizenship.
“Apathy towards minority issues in mainstream media has not only continued but become more pronounced. Social media, which is more susceptible to fake news and propaganda, has become the major news source,” it further stated.
The HRCP warned that the existing legislation intended to protect religious minorities stood in stark contrast to persistent violations of freedom of religion or belief, including the weaponisation of blasphemy laws, forced marriages and conversions, escalating hate speech, and the state’s failure to ensure equal citizenship.
Source: IANS
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