In June 2025, a case of religious persecution emerged in Pakistan’s Sindh province, where four siblings—three sisters and their 13-year-old male cousin—were abducted by their teachers, forcibly converted to Islam, and brought before a court. The court permitted the two adults to remain separated from their family, while the two minors were reluctantly returned to their parents. Meanwhile, Pakistani media, banned in India for spreading anti-India propaganda, downplayed the incident as a “willing embrace of Islam.”
Siblings lured, abducted, and forcibly converted
In Shahdadpur, Sindh, 22-year-old Jia Bai, 20-year-old Dia Bai, 16-year-old Disha Bai, and 13-year-old Harjeet Kumar were abducted. The two adult sisters are reportedly medical students. Their mother publicly accused Farhan Khaskheli, a local computer teacher, of abducting her daughters and brainwashing them. The children were later found in Karachi and brought before the Shahdadpur court.
Despite the family’s claims of abduction and coercion, the court ruled that the two adult sisters would remain in a shelter home in Karachi, stating they were free to make their own choices. The minors were returned to their family only after giving statements that they had “willingly” embraced Islam. The family suspects these statements were made under police pressure and duress.
Courts Shield Abductors Under the Guise of ‘Freedom’
The court dismissed kidnapping charges against Farhan Khaskheli and Zulfiqar Khaskheli, citing the children’s statements. This is not the first time Pakistani courts have appeared to side with Islamists in cases of forced conversions involving Hindus. Previous rulings have invoked “Islamic law” to deny parents custody, especially when minor girls are married to their abductors after conversion. In this case, the court also imposed a penalty of Rs 1 crore on the parents if they attempt to reconvert the minors to Hinduism.
Pakistan’s judiciary has long shown reluctance to enforce child protection and minority rights laws. Blasphemy and religious freedom laws are frequently misused to oppress minority communities.
ARY News: A Mouthpiece for Islamist Propaganda?
One unsurprising aspect of this case is the role of Pakistani media in whitewashing the crime. ARY News reported the incident under the headline, “Shahdadpur: Four Hindu siblings embrace Islam in Sindh,” deliberately using language that echoes the state’s usual script to sanitise forced conversions. The report made no mention of trauma, coercion, or grooming, instead framing the conversion as a “willing embrace” by the minors.
ARY News has a history of promoting Islamist narratives. Journalist Swati Goel Sharma points out that ARY Network was the exclusive Pakistani partner for the controversial film PK by Aamir Khan, Rajkumar Hirani, and Vidhu Vinod Chopra. The film, criticised in India for mocking Hindu beliefs, was actively promoted in Pakistan as a “satire on Hindu Gods.” Ironically, this same network now pushes the narrative of “willing” conversions of Hindu children.
This is how Pakistan’s ARY network has reported the recent shocking case of conversion of four Hindu siblings in Sindh, two of them less than 16 years of age – they have called it “willing embrace of Islam”
This is the same ARY group that partnered with Aamir Khan, Rajkumar… pic.twitter.com/24A5TGiUQx
— Swati Goel Sharma (@swati_gs) June 30, 2025
Furthermore, ARY Network’s ideological bias is evident when considering Waar, a 2013 high-budget film that served as anti-India and anti-Hindu propaganda. The movie glorified the Pakistani military while portraying Hindus and Indians as villains. Shockingly, Waar remained available on Netflix India until 2019, when Sanjeev Newar, co-founder of Gems of Bollywood and Agni Samaj, along with others, launched campaigns that ultimately led to its removal from the platform.
.@NetflixIndia, remove this anti-India Pak movie. Here, a visionary Pak politician shames Hinduism and glorifies conversion to Islam. Later he is brutally killed by RAW to disturb peace in Pak. @HMOIndia take notice.
Credit – @VashiAgniveer for expose.#boycottnetflix
2/n pic.twitter.com/FbIboKfw3d— Sanjeev Newar | सञ्जीव नेवर (@SanjeevSanskrit) September 12, 2019
The film’s lead actor, Shaan Shahid, is known for his outspoken anti-Hindu views. He was even reportedly offered a major role in Aamir Khan’s Ghajini, raising concerns about Bollywood’s tolerance of links to Pakistan’s extremist media.
ARY News has close ties to Pakistan’s spy agency, ISI, and consistently promotes anti-Hindu and anti-India narratives. In this case, it presented itself as an authoritative “source” while Hindu children were abducted and forcibly converted. Alarmingly, many international media outlets rely on such biased Pakistani sources for their coverage, further whitewashing the persecution of Hindus and other minorities in Pakistan on the global stage.
Systemic Persecution Since Partition
This case reflects a long history of religious persecution in Sindh. Since Pakistan’s creation in 1947, the Hindu population—especially in rural Sindh—has sharply declined. Abductions, forced conversions, and underage marriages of Hindu girls happen frequently and with alarming regularity. Human rights organisations estimate that over 1,000 Hindu girls are forcibly converted and married each year, often with the protection or complicity of local police.
Despite constitutional guarantees and reserved political seats, the Hindu minority in Pakistan remains marginalised, socially isolated, and legally vulnerable. Powerful religious leaders and Islamist groups operate with impunity, while Hindu families struggle against both their abductors and a legal system that consistently fails to protect them.
A Horrifying History of Forced Conversions in Pakistan
In recent years, numerous cases of forced conversions have come to light in Sindh. In April 2024, a Hindu girl was abducted and converted. In February 2023, a 17-year-old Hindu girl was kidnapped and allegedly converted “of her own will.” In May 2023, a 9-year-old Hindu girl was abducted, converted to Islam, and married off to a 55-year-old Muslim man. These incidents represent only a fraction of a much larger, ongoing crisis.
Denial of Basic Rights and Dignity
What happened in Shahdadpur is more than a family tragedy—it is a collective trauma and a national disgrace that Pakistan often denies or even glorifies. Minors are regularly brainwashed, separated from their families, and declared converts without regard for their age, safety, or consent. The media calls this a “willing embrace,” while the courts endorse these violations. Time and again, the system sides with abductors over victims.
Until Pakistan addresses the dangerous alliance of religious extremism, judicial bias, and media complicity, its minorities will remain second-class citizens, denied basic rights to religion, dignity, and even childhood.
