Press release

HRCP report investigates Hindu migration from Sindh

Karachi, 22 January 2025. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP)’s fact-finding study, Exodus: Is the Hindu Community Leaving Sindh?, underscores the state’s failure to protect a vulnerable minority, with many Hindu families compelled to migrate not only in connection with faith-based violence, but also economic struggles and climate change.

At a meeting held to share the study’s findings, HRCP chairperson Asad Iqbal Butt, pointed out that violence and discrimination against Hindu communities in Sindh was underreported. Many such communities felt compelled to migrate overseas, including to India, despite the social cost of doing so.

Rajvir Singh Sodha, special assistant to the Sindh chief minister for human rights, observed that many upper-caste Hindu families were subjected to extortion by criminal gangs amid deteriorating law and order in the province, thereby forcing them to migrate. HRCP Council member Pushpa Kumari highlighted the vulnerability of Hindu women to abduction, forced conversion and underage marriage.

Council member and journalist Sohail Sangi called on the Sindh and federal governments to take prompt steps to create a safer, more dignified environment for the Hindu community, including more effective law enforcement, greater Hindu representation in the police, and consistent dialogue between the government and local Hindu communities.

HRCP’s study also recommends collecting credible data on the migration of Hindu individuals and families from Sindh to assess the scale of the problem, deploying specialized law enforcement units in areas with high violence against minorities, and enacting and enforcing legislation against forced conversions and underage marriages.

HRCP Sindh vice-chair Qazi Khizer Habib concluded the meeting with a vote of thanks.

Farah Zia
Director

The report can be accessed here.