In yet another incident of conversion of girls from minority communities in Pakistan, a 19-year-old Sikh girl was allegedly abducted and converted to Islam before being married to a Muslim man in the country’s Punjab province.
An FIR has been registered against six people in the case, Muhammad Jamil, Nankana City Police Investigation Officer, told PTI.
The family of the girl, in a video message, have claimed that Kaur was abducted and forcibly converted to Islam and sought Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s help.
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Police have arrested one of the suspects named Arsalan, a friend of the prime accused Mohammad Hassan who married the Sikh girl.
“Arsalan facilitated Hassan in getting him married to the Sikh girl,” he said, adding that Hassan is on a pre-arrest bail and could not be arrested.
Jamil said that Hassan and the girl live in the same locality.
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“They developed a love affair and the girl decided to elope with him to contract marriage,” he said.
Jamil said that the advocate of the girl, identified as Jagjit Kaur, in her statement before the court declared that she embraced Islam and married Hassan of her free will.
The police official said that the girl, through her lawyer Sheikh Sultan, rejected her family’s allegations.
Sultan said that he has also filed a petition in the Lahore High Court against local police and her family on behalf of the girl.
As per the directions of the court, Kaur has been sent to Darul Aman, Lahore (shelter home).
Meanwhile, a video of the girl at the wedding ceremony has also gone viral on social media.
In the video, the girl is seen sitting beside Hassan and saying that she was marrying him without any pressure.
India on Friday said it has raised with Pakistan the issue of the Sikh girl’s forced conversion to Islam and asked for an “immediate remedial action”.
The government in Pakistan’s Punjab province has constituted a high-level panel to negotiate with the 30-member committee formed by the Sikh community in connection with the case.
Prime Minister Khan had in March ordered a probe into reports of abduction, forced conversion and underage marriages of two teenage Hindu girls in Sindh province.
The two girls were allegedly kidnapped by a group of “influential” men from their home in Ghotki district in Sindh on the eve of Holi.