Islamabad, Aug 20 (NationPress) The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has raised a significant alarm regarding a troubling rise in violence targeting religious minorities. Recent reports indicate a surge in targeted killings of Ahmadiyyas, as well as cases of forced conversions and underage marriages involving Hindu and Christian girls, particularly in the Punjab and Sindh regions, as noted by local media.

During a seminar held on Tuesday, the HRCP unveiled its report titled “Streets of Fear: Freedom of Religion or Belief in 2024/25”, which documented a year fraught with challenges for religious freedom and minority rights in Pakistan.

“The violence against minorities has escalated. There have been numerous targeted killings of Ahmadiyyas. In one shocking instance, a man was lynched in broad daylight near a large police presence in a bustling market in Pakistan’s largest city. Law enforcement has partially or entirely demolished places of worship, even when they had been granted protection by high court decisions. Numerous incidents of severe desecration were reported throughout the country,” the report stated.

The report further highlighted that Christian and Hindu minority rights advocates have consistently raised concerns about the forced conversion of young girls in Punjab and Sindh. It detailed several cases, revealing that most of the girls allegedly abducted or enticed from their homes were under 18, clearly violating federal and provincial minimum age laws for marriage.

In many situations, there appears to be a systematic pattern of abducting girls and subsequently coercing them into marriage following their conversion to Islam.

The rights organization pointed out that the trend of non-Muslim minor girls going missing and then reappearing after a few days, having converted to Islam and married Muslim men, has continued throughout 2024-2025. It emphasized that “Hindus in Sindh, who represent 8.8 percent of the province’s population, and Christians, who account for 1.9 percent in Punjab,” have repeatedly voiced concerns regarding this issue.

“Hate speech has been escalating. Death threats were directed at the chief justice of the Supreme Court when the court granted bail to an Ahmadiyya individual. An elected senator faced public insults, particularly from some pro-right-wing social media platforms, which questioned his patriotism when he defended religious minorities. The overt manner in which these hateful comments were made was deeply troubling,” the report elaborated.

The HRCP expressed concern over the growing alignment of the country’s bar associations with extremist religious groups, a trend that undermines the legal profession's independence. The report also documented allegations of collusion by state institutions in cases where numerous young men and women were caught up in blasphemy accusations and extorted in Pakistan.

Reiterating previous recommendations, the human rights body urged the Pakistani government to promptly establish an independent statutory national commission dedicated to minority rights, ensuring fair representation for all religious communities.