Abduction, forced conversion of Hindu girls continues in Pakistan

A resident of Malhi village of Sindh's Tharparkar district, Ishwar Bheel, said that his 20-year-old daughter Guddi Bheel was kidnapped by Sikhander Bajeer of Tando Adam Naukot of Mirpur-Khason on March 8 while returning from the hospital where she had gone to collect fever medicines for her brother.

He said that she had been pressured to embrace Islam and forced to sign and submit a sworn affidavit addressed to Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) and Deputy Commissioner (DC) Mirpur Khas, claiming that she converted to Islam on her free will and was not pressurized or forced to do so.

In another incident of a Hindu minor girl being kidnapped and police refusing to register a case, Veero Kolhia resident of Talho Malho village of Umerkot said that his minor daughter was abducted by influential people of his village by giving her some soft drinks laced with intoxicants.

He further said that despite repeated pleas, police refused to register a missing case.

Three other cases of kidnapping and forced conversions of minor Hindu girls were reported in March 2023.

While Meena Butt (14) was kidnapped from near her home in Mavomehhwar, Mirpurkhas and married to kidnapper Abdur after conversion at Barchundi Sharif Dargah (Gotki), Sangita Kumari (16) of Karachi was married to her kidnapper after being forced to embrace Islam at Karachi's Sufi Darbar. Krishna Bheel (13) was abducted from Mirpurkhas while returning from school. The Mirpur Khas police refused to register the missing complaint saying that she must have eloped with her boyfriend, said her father Dasram Bheel.

Meanwhile, on Monday, more than 100 social activists from different districts of Pakistan's Sindh and Punjab provinces protested against the kidnapping and forced conversions of minor girls from minority, especially Hindu communities, in an event titled "Aurat" organized in Karachi.

Several activists during the event talked about atrocities against women and the apathy shown by the government authorities towards such incidents.

The speakers claimed that while police authorities refuse to file FIRs in kidnapping cases, medical and legal authorities connive to declare underage girls as major and eligible for marriage.

Karachi-based activist Birma Jeswani said that such incidents of kidnapping of minors, declaring them as major and then forced conversion have been rampant in Sindh for more than a decade and called for an immediate end to such incidents. (ANI)