BADIN: A teenage Hindu girl was allegedly kidnapped at gunpoint from Sindh’s Badin District earlier this month, her father claimed, fearing that she may be subjected to a forced conversion to Islam.
The girl’s father filed a complaint at the Badin’s Pangrio police station on Tuesday that her 14-year-old daughter, Mala, was kidnapped by Ghulam Haider Taheem and his abettors. Following which, a first information report (FIR) was filed against the suspect.
However, the story took a twist when one of the four suspects, claiming to be Mala’s husband, stepped forward and sent legal documents to local journalists to show that he had married the girl after she purportedly embraced Islam on March 17. He also denied her father’s claim of her being a minor and claimed that the girl was 19-year-old at the time of marriage.
The man, who hails from Pithoro town of Umerkot district, also said that he and his alleged wife had submitted an application seeking state protection to a court in Sanghar.
The case has emerged days after an alleged forced conversion and underage marriages of two teenage Hindu girls in Ghotki district led to a verbal spat on Twitter between Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry and Indian Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj.
However on Monday, the teenage sisters – Reena, 14, and Raveena, 16 – approached the Islamabad High Court (IHC) along with their spouses seeking protection. The following day, IHC ordered the state to take over the custody of the girls and ensure their protection after the petitioners pledged that they were being subjected to negative propaganda on media due to which their lives are under threat.
