In yet another heart-wrenching case of violence against minorities in Pakistan, a 19-year-old Hindu girl has been subjected to a brutal ordeal, culminating in her gang rape and murder. The incident occurred in the remote region of Qasim Wala Bangla, located in the Cholistan desert, as reported by The News International.

According to a spokesperson from the Derawer Police Station, three individuals have been arrested in connection with the crime. The postmortem report is pending, shedding light on the full extent of the horrifying incident.

The victim’s father revealed that his daughter was kidnapped while she went to relieve herself in the desert during the late hours of the night, a practice that should not cost anyone their life.

Tragically, the young girl’s lifeless body was discovered near the Bhutta Canal on a fateful Thursday, 5 October 2023.

This incident adds to the growing concern over the forced conversion, rape, and forced marriages of Hindu women in Pakistan, sparking international outrage. The atrocities against religious minorities within Pakistan are discriminatory and do not receive enough international attention. 

Shockingly, within the first two months of 2023, at least 42 cases of atrocities against Hindus were reported in regional news channels across Pakistan. These incidents include abductions, gang rapes, forced conversions, and even mob lynchings, among other horrifying crimes.

Voice of Pakistan Minority, an advocacy group, reported that just in January, there were six cases of abduction, forced conversion, and marriage reported in local media, with an additional five such cases occurring in February. The list further reveals that at least nine cases involved the grim discovery of Hindu victims found hanging, and at least four cases were classified as murder.

ANI reported that earlier this year, Hindu rights activist Mahesh Vasu presented a harrowing report to the Ministry of External Affairs, documenting as many as 96 cases of abduction, forced conversion, marriage, and gang rape of women belonging to Pakistan’s minority communities.