Report Flags How Pakistan's Hindu Population Fell From 14.6% To Under 2%

In a sharp criticism of Pakistan's treatment of its religious minorities, diaspora organisation INSIGHT UK on Wednesday placed evidence before the British Parliament, exposing how Hindus have been systematically hounded, dispossessed and decimated in Pakistan.Launching its report - The Religious Persecution of Hindus in Pakistan - before the All-Party Parliamentary Group for British Hindus, the organisation brought together historical records and present-day testimonies to lay bare the systematic discrimination, attacks on religious freedom and threats to life and dignity faced by Hindus across the border.INSIGHT UK has launched its report, The Religious Persecution of Hindus in Pakistan, before the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for British Hindus. The report brings together historical evidence and present-day testimony on the discrimination, attacks on religious freedom, and threats to safety and dignity faced by Hindu communities in Pakistan. The figures are devastating: an estimated more than 1,000 women and girls from Hindu and Christian communities are abducted, forcibly converted to Islam and forcibly married to their captors every year. Human rights organisations and international reporting have repeatedly documented this pattern, particularly affecting young women from minority communities. This launch is an important step in placing evidence, survivor testimony and lived realities directly before Parliament and in insisting that the human rights of Hindus and other minorities in Pakistan are neither denied nor ignored. Religious freedom is a human right. The safety, dignity and agency of minorities must be protected. @APPGBritHindus @BobBlackman— INSIGHT UK (@INSIGHTUK2) October 24, 2026The report begins with a statistic that tells the entire story of persecution. According to the 1941 Census of India, Hindus constituted 14.6% of the population in the region that became West Pakistan. After partition, that number fell off a cliff. Today, less than 2% of Pakistan's population is Hindu.The report notes that a decline of this scale, sustained over seven decades, sits uneasily with Islamabad's claims that it protects its minorities.Behind the numbers lies a history of violence and economic strangulation.The report documents how the community has faced periodic waves of violence since the riots of 1947. Thousands of Hindu families who fled or were displaced were stripped of their ancestral lands and farms through Enemy Property laws, a move that pushed an entire community into poverty and permanent displacement.The persecution, the report argues, is not just on the streets but written into the very laws of Pakistan. Articles 41 and 91 of its Constitution mandate that only a Muslim can become President or Prime Minister, a provision that remains unchallenged after a 2019 reform bill was blocked.Every Pakistani is forced to declare his religion on his passport. Even in the capital Islamabad, there is no functioning Hindu mandir. The construction of the first temple was halted in 2020 after violent protests by Islamist groups despite official permission, and it remains unbuilt to this day.The most harrowing chapter of the report deals with the plight of women and girls. An estimated one thousand or more Hindu and Christian women and girls are kidnapped, forcibly converted to Islam and forcibly married to their kidnappers every year in Pakistan, a pattern repeatedly documented by human rights organisations. Most victims are minors from poor families with no access to justice.Ending on a strong note, the report makes five urgent demands to the UK Government. It has called for making minority protection non-negotiable in every UK-Pakistan dialogue with time-bound action on temple protection and speedy trials, linking British aid to Pakistan to progress on human rights and ring-fencing funds for minority rights groups, reserving two posts at the British High Commission in Islamabad for members of minority communities so that abuses are reported without a filter, publishing an official six-monthly report on the socio-economic condition of Hindus,Christians, Sikhs and other minorities, and creating safe asylum pathways for victims of forced conversion and religious persecution.The report has urged the Foreign Secretary, the Prime Minister's Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief and the Indo-Pacific Minister to act, asserting that religious freedom is a human right and the safety, dignity and agency of minorities must be protected.