An underage Hindu girl was abducted and forced to marry an older man who converted her to Islam in Pakistan’s Sindh province, community members told news agency PTI on Thursday. The case came to light just a day after another underage Hindu girl abducted from Hyderabad was returned to her family on a court order on Wednesday after a year-long ordeal, the PTI report said.
According to Shiva Faqir Kaachi, head of Pakistan Darawar Ittehad, the 16-year-old girl was abducted from her village in Hunguru on Wednesday and forced to marry a much older man who converted her to Islam.
“The girl was taken to a seminary near Samura area and married off. When the parents went to the seminary on Thursday to see her, the cleric refused to let them in,” Kaachi told PTI.
“It has become a regular occurrence for Hindu families to see their young daughters and sisters forcibly taken and converted to marry Muslim men in these places,” he said.
A Hyderabad sessions court on Wednesday ordered a teenage girl to be reunited with her family after she was abducted in Hyderabad, converted and then married to a Muslim man last year.
Kaachi noted that since most Hindu families in Pakistan are poor, their women are easy targets and when they are abducted, their families face significant challenges in securing their return due to lack of support from the system.
He said his organisation, which represents the Hindu community, will seek legal recourse to recover the abducted teenager.
“No one knows how long it will take, but we will continue to fight against this injustice and this crime,” Kaachi said.
In January 2022, a Hindu girl kidnapped just three days after her marriage made headlines in a similar incident. She had allegedly converted to Islam and married a Muslim man, but managed to escape after 14 months. The police brought her home, but after a few months she was kidnapped again and has not yet been recovered.
Disclaimer:
The information contained in this post is for general information purposes only. We make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the post for any purpose.
We respect the intellectual property rights of content creators. If you are the owner of any material featured on our website and have concerns about its use, please contact us. We are committed to addressing any copyright issues promptly and will remove any material within 2 days of receiving a request from the rightful owner.