Islamabad: The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has condemned the alleged forced conversion of a young Pakistani Hindu woman to Islam, stating such a "malicious campaign is in full swing" in the country.
The woman named Anita, wife of Suresh Kumar and a mother of two children, was allegedly kidnapped April 27 from her house in Moro in Sindh province.
Her husband was not at home and the two children, a boy of four years and a girl of 22 months were beaten up and locked inside the house. The police later said Anita must have run away on her own as her character "would be like that", said a statement from the AHRC.
The statement said the abductor's lawyer produced a Muslim marriage certificate in a court, and the latter announced that she had embraced Islam by marrying a Muslim man.
Forced conversion of Hindu women to Islam in Sindh province has become very common, it said.
"The malicious campaign is in full swing by the religious seminaries, and their modus operandi is to use students of the seminaries to abduct young women and rape them in captivity. And when it is identified that the girl has been abducted, they announce that the victim is married and has embraced Islam."
"If her embracement to Islam through abduction and rape was recognised by the courts and courts were happy to see her as converting to Islam, then why have the courts not seen the fundamental requirements of Islam? May be laws are different for different occasions or may be Hindus are not treated as citizens of Pakistan," it said.
"The way in which the case of Anita was treated in the High and Supreme Court was no more different from the ordinary jirga or panchayat, where the elders of tribes sit down and decide the case on the basis of personal liking or disliking."
The AHRC, based in Hong Kong, was founded in 1986. It is an independent, non-governmental body, which seeks to promote awareness of human rights in Asia.
IANS
First Published: Saturday, November 12, 2011, 16:19