Several statistics that have come up in the Citizenship (Amendment) Act debate are themselves subject to debate regardless of how they are interpreted. To underline the community's marginalization in the roughly 70 years since Pakistan's founding, hardliners have warned about a sharp fall in the country's Hindu population. Census data, however, hints that the reduction may have occurred suddenly and sharply rather than gradually over many years, leaving a very small but steady presence in the population.

While this is undoubtedly true for Pakistan, the 1971 War and partition had a significant impact on Hindu numbers in Bangladesh (East Pakistan) as well. There is no denying that Hindus have experienced marginalization in Bangladesh and Pakistan, but the situation is not the same in the two nations.

Every month, more than 50 Hindu families leave for India. Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, the founder of the Pakistan Hindu Council, based in Karachi, claims that this is because the Pakistani government has been unable to address the deep sense of unhappiness among Hindus brought on, in part, by the rising incidence of forced conversion, particularly in Sindh province in southern Pakistan. Pakistani lawmakers recently accused the Taliban of being responsible for the plight of Hindus and said that the development was the result of a global plot to tarnish Pakistan. In fact, rather than seeing the issue of Hindu migration as a concerning trend, many in Pakistan's political establishment view it as only a few extreme incidents of dissatisfaction.

In Pakistan, there are over seven million Hindus, and Sindh province is home to 94% of them (especially in Hyderabad, Karachi, Tharparkat, Mithi, Mirpur Khas, Shikarpur, and Sukkur). Hindus made up more than 15% of Pakistan's population just before partition, but they today make up less than 2%.

Over the past five years, there has been a steady rise in the number of Hindu immigrants coming to India. Many people believe the current migration is comparable to the period between 1989 and 1991 when lakhs of Hindus moved to India.

Most frequently before festivals, many Hindu migrants use the Attari border crossing to legitimately visit India as a pilgrimage destination by making a commitment to a Pakistani official. They visit India with the intention of returning before their 30-day visa expires, but many do so quickly after arriving. Since Pakistani nationals are not eligible for asylum in India, migrants frequently request a visa extension of six months to a year. Estimates from the Indian government placed the number of Hindus from Pakistan in India with extended visas between 4,000 and 5,000. The migrants' lives are incredibly challenging, yet many Hindus from Pakistan have made the decision over the years to stay outside of Pakistan, relying on the goodwill of the Indian government.

Twenty to twenty-five kidnappings and forced conversions of Hindu girls in Sindh were recorded each month by the Asian Human Rights Commission. Forced conversions, kidnapping for ransom, and other types of harassment primarily afflicted the Hindu community, particularly those in Sindh's Larkana and Sakkhar divisions.

The Pakistani government refuses to publicly acknowledge forced conversion, instead insisting that such occurrences are voluntary. However, if the majority of these conversions had been voluntary, they would have happened among all age groups of Hindus. Instead, most conversions, which are sometimes tied to instances of forced marriage, involve young, attractive Hindu girls.

The surge in forced conversion and migration is the result of a variety of interrelated reasons, thus the issue is not straightforward. Four key factors, in particular, merit more investigation:

1. The economic and political exclusion of Hindus; 

2. The relative affluence of Hindus; 

3. The rise of radicalization and intolerance in Pakistan;

4. The comparison of Hindus in Pakistan to Hindus in India.

Hindus make up a tiny, hardly electoral minority. They are being consistently ignored and are turning into easy targets. Promoting political involvement and economic growth are less important to political forces. In actuality, Hindus' current situation has been mostly brought on by party politics. Hindus' rights are not supported by any of the major parties. Most state and national political party leaders who come after them have continued to support a few Hindu leaders by elevating them to subordinate posts and using them to win over voters in Hindu-majority areas. Such Hindu politicians are still reliant on their Muslim backers, making it unlikely that they will bargain for Hindu objectives.

In general, it is believed that Pakistan's top Hindu and Muslim groups have adapted to the demands of the political and administrative system rather than confronting it.

The prosperity of Hindus may possibly be a factor in the targeting's persistence. Most Hindus in Pakistan are educated, and they do rather well in business and the government. Given the Wadhera (feudal lord) attacks on the prosperous Hindus in the Upper Sindh regions, the situation is understandable. Since January 2012, over 108 economically successful Hindus have been abducted in Sindh's Larkana and Sukkur divisions for ransom.

Hindu emigration can also be linked to Pakistan's rising radicalization and intolerance of other religions. Anyone who does not follow the Wahhabi-Salafi-Takfiri school of Islam is a target for extremists. Most religious minorities, including non-Sunni Muslims, are constantly in danger of being persecuted, especially Hindus. Due to the increasing activities of militant groups supported by various religious and non-religious political parties, Sindh province, which was formerly well-known for Sufi culture and is also known as Bab-ul-Islam, The Gateway of Islam, has been swiftly heading towards radicalization.

Targeting the minority Hindu population could also be a national strategy for energizing and strengthening the nation's support for the majority Muslim population. In a manner, the attacks might serve as a means of symbolically linking Hindus in Pakistan with Indians, reinforcing Muslim unity.

Regardless of their political affiliation or level of influence, local, national, and international media outlets and civil society organizations need to proactively expose the factors that lead to forced conversions in order to put pressure on extremists to refrain from such adventurism and the government to move quickly to stop such occurrences.

It is also past time for Pakistani authorities to take extra precautions to win back the trust of minorities by pursuing legal action against those who would harm them.