The majority of such hapless girls and women are from the Hindu community.

This shocking news came as part of a United Kingdom parliamentary panel report published in September this year.

The report pointed out how these powerful men, their families and certain Muslim organisations "hide their crime under the cloak of religion, and there are unlikely to be any worrying penalties to pay for them."

One of the witnesses who testified to the parliamentary panel said "the thought that they are adding a new convert to Islam alone can give them immunity in the eyes of religious leaders and scholars as well as ordinary citizens, and sometimes influences the police and the judiciary as well."

Every year, over a thousand girls and women fall victim to these crimes, pointed out the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Pakistani Minorities (APPG) of the UK Parliament which in its report castigated Pakistan for the rising number of abductions, forced conversions and forced marriages of young women from minority communities.

The group pointed out that Pakistan government had rarely taken any corrective action to help the hapless families who lost their daughters to Muslim men.

Quoting a report prepared by a Pakistani NGO, Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), the parliamentary report pointed out that Hindu girls topped the list of victims.

The survey carried out by CSJ said the number of Hindu girl victims was 88 (54 percent), Christians 72 (44 percent), Sikhs (0.62 percent), Kalash (0.62 percent). 

The province-wise data showed that maximum crimes took place in Punjab (51.85 percent) followed by Sindh.

One of the most shocking figures was that nearly half the converted victims were minors. Of the surveyed families, 75 percent of the girls were below 18, of which over 32 percent were aged between 11 and 15.

Since age was not mentioned in 37 percent of cases,  the actual number would be higher. The report said the figures collated would merely be a 'tip of the iceberg' since a large number of cases were never reported.

Some Muslim organisations and shrines are openly involved in this practice. The report said these organisations had no other mission but to find young girls from non-Muslim poor families and marry them off to Sunni men.

Organisations such as Minhaj-ul-Quran routinely indulge in solemnizing the practice of converting members of minority communities by offering rewards for successful conversions. Likewise in Sindh, Dargah Bharchundi Sharif is well known for such practices.

These organisations have planned a devious plan to dodge any legal hassles along the way. The report showed, "after kidnapping, conversion, and forced marriage many girls are coerced by their abductors into making statements against their parents when they are presented in Court. Due to life threats, the girls state that they have come of their will."

Once done, the girls are trapped like sex slaves. After some months, many of them disappear, or are murdered or forcibly moved into prostitution. Pregnant women face worse situations. If they give birth to girls, they are treated `like slaves`.

The panel found a clear pattern in how the crime gets carried out, right under the nose of the law keepers. A young girl or woman can be abducted on her way to school or work, even from her home.

She is taken immediately to a mosque or a religious organisation where the conversion takes place.

There is no law against conversion in Pakistan. Only non-Muslims are converted. If a Muslim converts, he or she is ostracized by the family and society and face the threat of being locked up under the draconian blasphemy laws. 

The report  pointed out forced conversions are being used as a tool for 'silent discrimination' since there is so much publicity for blasphemy cases.  The police mostly refuse to register an FIR in such cases, forcing families of abducted young girls and women with no access to judicial remedy.

Besides the police, the judiciary too has played hand in glove with majority Muslims by applying Sharia law instead of the state law in deciding the victim’s marriage status.

The girls have no knowledge of Islam and thus become abused twice, once by forcibly converting her religion and again by legitimising her illegal marriage.

Islamic law permits the marriage of a girl after her first menstrual cycle. The state law puts a binder at 18 years as a legitimate age for marriage.

Besides the physical damage such rapes and marriages have inflicted on young girls, the psychological traumas they suffer are incalculable. 

The report pointed out how "this violent and inhumane act deprives the girl of her childhood, and the support systems she had known all her life; her extended family, school and the wider community suddenly disappear."

There have been cases where such crimes are staged as a smokescreen for other heinous crimes like human trafficking, forced prostitution and child abuse, and there have also been several incidents where converted girls have been sold off to prostitution rings and other individuals, according to the report.