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Pak Hindu girls forced to convert to Islam
By:
Hasan Mansoor
November 15, 20
05
source: midday.com
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| When
a Hindu girl is converted to Islam, hundreds of extremists belonging
to religious parties such as Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s
Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam (JUI), take to the streets and chant religious
slogans |
Karachi: An alarming trend — that of Muslims kidnapping Pakistani
Hindu girls and forcing them to convert to Islam — in Pakistan’s Sindh
province is forcing the worried resident Hindu community to marry off their
daughters as soon as they are of marriageable age or to migrate to India,
Canada or other nations.
Recently, at least 19 such abduction cases have occurred in Karachi alone,
while several others have been reported in the media.
Sanao Menghwar, a Hindu resident of Karachi’s Punjab Colony, is a
traumatised man; all three of his daughters —Aishwarya, Reena and Reema
— have been kidnapped and forced to convert to Islam.
In the police complaint that he filed at the behest of the Panchayat after
two days of futile searching for his daughters, he stated that when he and
his wife returned home from work, they discovered their daughters had gone
missing.
The police arrested three Muslim youths in connection with the crime, who
were later granted bail by a court because they’re minors. Menghwar’s
daughters continue to remain missing.
“Kidnapping Hindu girls like this has become a normal practice. The girls
are then forced to sign stamp papers stating that they’ve become
Muslims,” says Laljee Menghwar, a member of the Hindu Panchayat in
Karachi.
According to him, the Pakistani government needs to examine and put a stop
to the social oppression of religious minorities in the country. “Hindus
here are too frightened to vent their anger — they fear victimisation. But
we have now decided to go public with these cases and demand justice,”
Laljee says. Their cause has found support in the Pakistani Christian
community, who carried out a demonstration with them in Karachi, protesting
against this crime.
Similarly startling incidents have occurred in several districts of Sindh
and evoked identical responses. At least six Hindu girls met this fate a few
months ago in Jacobabad (a tribal area heavily inhabited by Hindus) and
Larkana districts.
Sapna, the daughter of one Seth Giyanchand, was recently taken to a shrine (Amrote
in Shikarpur district) by Shamsuddin Dasti. Dasti, a Muslim friend of
Sapna’s brother, is a married man and father of two.
Nevertheless, the custodian of the shrine, Maulvi Abdul Aziz lost no time in
converting Sapna to Islam (her names was changed to ‘Mehek’) and
marrying her to Dasti. The case came to light only when Sapna’s parents
stated that their daughter hadn’t eloped but been abducted.
Human rights activists, such as Nuzhat Shirin who belongs to the Aurat
Foundation, says that religious extremism is rapidly increasing in Jacobabad
and other Sindh districts.
Extremists in turn encourage shrines, which are involved with forced
conversions. When a Hindu girl is converted to Islam, hundreds of extremists
belonging to religious parties such as Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s
Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam (JUI), take to the streets and chant religious slogans.
In Sapna’s case, when she was presented in court with Dasti, extremists
showered rose petals on them and loudly chanted religious slogans. The
fanaticism was so daunting that Sapna was too frightened to even speak with
her own parents who were also present in the courtroom. At that, Maulvi Aziz,
who was also standing in the courtroom, was said to have remarked, “How
can a Muslim girl live and maintain contact with kafirs (infidels)?”
Sapna’s story sparked widespread demonstrations by the Hindu community.
Presidents and mukhis of Panchayats from various towns and districts met in
Jacobabad to discuss this serious issue. Activists and leaders from educated
segments of society strongly criticised the role of religious leaders, like
Maulvi Aziz, in these forced conversion cases.
Still, the threat of victimisation by Muslims is palpable; Shirin says when
forced conversion cases make it to court, lawyers themselves avoid taking
them up, fearing a backlash from maulvis.
Giyanchand meanwhile has said that he has no other option but to migrate to
India — it will be difficult for him to find grooms for his other
daughters because of Sapna’s controversial conversion.
And forced conversions are not the only problem that the Hindu minority
(there are 2.7 million Hindus in Pakistan; Pakistan’s total population is
140 million) is facing in the country.
A powerful syndicate of bandits and patrons in the northern districts of
Sindh regularly kidnap rich Hindus for ransom. They not only kill hostages
if the ransom doesn’t arrive on time, they even kill some despite their
ransom being paid.
Sadham Chand Chawla, the former president of the Hindu Panchayat, Jacobabad,
was abducted and murdered. His killers remain at large despite enormous
protests. Following his murder, his family had received several threats
until they secretly migrated to India.
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