2024-09-15 00:12:36
Karachi: A case has come to light in Pakistan’s Sindh province where a minor Hindu girl was kidnapped, married to an elderly man and then forcibly converted to Islam, community members said on Thursday. The case came to light a day after another minor Hindu girl, who was kidnapped from Hyderabad, was handed back to her family on Wednesday on the orders of a court after a year-long ordeal.
Shiva Fakir Kachi, head of the Pakistan Darawar Ittehad organisation, said the 16-year-old girl was kidnapped from her village Hunguru on Wednesday and forcibly married to an older man who converted her to Islam. “The girl was taken to a madrassa near Samura area and married off. When the parents went to the madrassa to see her on Thursday, the maulvi refused to let them in,” Kachi said.
“It has now become a regular occurrence for Hindu families that their young daughters and sisters are forcibly taken to these places and converted and married to Muslim men,” he said. A Hyderabad sessions court on Wednesday ordered the reunion of a girl with her family who was abducted from Hyderabad last year, converted and married to a Muslim man.
Kachi said most Hindu families in Pakistan are poor, so their women are easy targets and when they are kidnapped, their families face challenges in ensuring their return due to lack of support from the government system. He said his organisation, representing the Hindu community, will take legal recourse to recover the kidnapped teenager.