Abduction, forced conversion of Hindu girls in Pakistan continues

New Delhi: Twenty-two-year old Aarti Chawla is the latest victim of alleged oppression by the majority Muslim community on the hapless Hindu girls. She was allegedly abducted by a factory worker Mohammad Fawad who married her after converting her to Islam.

Aarti alias Ayesha is now in Dar ul Aman, Larkana, a city in Sindh province of Pakistan, and has even refused to recognize her family members. 

According to Facebook page of All Pakistan Hindu Panchyat (APHP) nine Hindu girls, including Aarti, had been allegedly abducted in the past eight weeks. Seven Hindu girls were converted to Islam and married to Muslim men twice or thrice their age.  

The repeated incidents of abduction, conversion and marrying off the Hindu girls with Muslim men had created panic among the minority Hindu community that expects Imran Khan-led government to take stringent measures to prevent such incidents to infuse a sense of safety and security among them. 

Following Aarti’s abduction, the APHP has floated an idea of constituting a committee comprising of retired judges, prominent Hindu leaders including religious ones to exclusively investigate whether the girls from the minority community are willingly embracing Islam and marrying Muslim men or not and thus act accordingly. 

While expressing concern over unending incidents of conversion of Hindu girls to Islam, Kheal Das Kohistani, Pakistan Muslim League (N), Member National Assembly (MNA) told media that in 2019 a Parliamentary Committee to Protect Minorities from Forced Conversions was constituted under Senator Anwarul Haq Kakar.  

The Committee was still in process of doing the groundwork before drafting a Bill to form a law to prevent the forced conversions, said Kohistani.  

Stating that Aarti had been found by the police and sent to Dar ul Aman, Kohistani, further said it was a temporary relief and not a solution since the minority communities lived in constant fear of some ‘mishap’ with the young girls.  

In the recent past, Pakistan Hindu Council led by Pak Hindu MNA Ramesh Kumar Vankwani had penned down an agreement with Islamist clerics including Pir Mohammad Ayub Jan Sarhandi and Mian Mitha to hold a joint meeting with the girl who embraces Islam or with her parents as well as with the Muslim men with whom she ties a nuptial knot but that agreement has also failed to yield any desirable result.