Karachi, Sep 12 (PTI) A minor Hindu girl has been abducted and forcibly married off to an elderly man who converted her to Islam in Pakistan’s Sindh province, the community members said on Thursday.
The matter came to light just a day after another minor Hindu girl, who was kidnapped from Hyderabad, was handed back to her family on the orders of a court on Wednesday after a year-long ordeal.
Shiva Faqir Kaachi, who heads the Pakistan Darawar Ittehad organisation, said the 16-year-old girl was abducted from her village in Hunguru on Wednesday and forcibly married off to a much older man who converted her to Islam.
“The girl was taken to a seminary near the 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 said.
“It has now become a regular occurrence for Hindu families to see their young daughters and sisters forcibly taken away and converted to be married off to Muslim men in these places,” he said.
On Wednesday, a sessions court in Hyderabad ordered a teenage girl to be reunited with her family after she was abducted from Hyderabad, converted and then married off 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 a lack of support from the system.
He said his organisation, which represents the Hindu community, will pursue a legal recourse to recover the abducted teenage girl.
“How long it will take, no one knows. But we will continue to fight this injustice and crime,” Kaachi said.
In a similar incident, a Hindu girl, who was abducted just three days after her marriage, grabbed headlines in January 2022. She was allegedly converted to Islam and married to a Muslim man but she managed to escape after 14 months. The police brought her home but after a few months, she was abducted again and is yet to be recovered. PTI CORR SCY SCY
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