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Yet another Hindu girl has been kidnapped in the Sindh province; she has been forcibly converted and married. The kidnapping for conversion took place on Jan 15 at Jacobabad. Alarmed at the increasing rate of forced conversions of young Hindu girls, the minority Hindu Community has threatened to leave Pakistan.
Under the banner of All Pakistan Hindu Panchayat, the Hindus staged a protest demonstration in Jacobabad seeking the intervention of the Chief Justice, Army Chief and Prime Minister Imran Khan to ensure their safety.
Even as the police failed to trace the ‘missing’ girl, a video surfaced on Jan18 that showed her conversion to Islam at Dargah Amrote Sharif. In the video, Mehak Kumari aka Nanki Kumari aka Arok Kumari was heard taking a vow of embracing Islam, and marrying Ali Raza Machi, of ‘her own free will’. Soon appeared another video related to Dargah Amroti Sharif, justifying the girl embracing Islam.
Mehak Kumari was seen with Ali Raza in the video. “I have converted to Islam on my own free will and my Muslim name now is Aliza,” she said, adding that her age is 18, though going by school records she is a 15-year-old studying ninth class.
Her husband, Raza Machi is 28-year –old. He has already married twice and has four children. Some time back, he deserted them.
Mehak Kamari is the 50th Hindu girl to be abducted and converted in the Sindh province. Her father runs a medical stores from a rented premises. She is the eldest of four children – three daughters and one son. Like always, Mehak went to school last Wednesday too but did not return home.
All Pakistan Hindu Panchayat, (APHP) has red flagged the issue of security for the Hindus. “If nothing is done we would be forced to move out for the safety of our children”, said Ravi Dawani of APHP.
“Hindu community in Jacobabad is worried. Every other day, we hear our girls being kidnapped and converted to Islam. They are trying to torture us with such actions,” said another representative of the Hindu community.
“Our Hindu community will stage protests against this abduction and forced conversion of Nanki Kumari and will do it across Pakistan,” he said.
APHP has released a list of conversion cases of Hindu minority girls, as a part of its campaign to raise global awareness about their concerns.
On January 17, India summoned a senior official of Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi and lodged a protest on the forcible conversions of minor girls.
A day before Mehak Kamari was abducted, two more Hindu girls were similarly abducted from Umar Village in Tharparkar also in the Sindh province. Both of them were converted to Islam.
In the recent past, a Sikh girl from Nankana Sahib was abducted by a local Muslim youth Mohammad Hassan and married to him before camera. The incident had brought both the minority Sikh community of Nankana Sahib and Muslims to the collision course, and led to an attack on the historic Gurdwara Nankana Sahib.
Cases of forced conversions of young Hindu girls continue to surface from Pakistan’s Sindh province notwithstanding Prime Minister Imran Khan’s tall claims of security and safety of minorities in Pakistan.