A court in Karachi handed over the custody of an underage Hindu girl, who was allegedly abducted by a man and was forced to marry him after converting to Islam, to her parents.
Suspect Mohammad Rashid allegedly abducted 15-year-old Ramila, alias Sara, from Shershah area. The suspect then forcefully converted the underage girl and married her.
According to Dawn, the girl told the magistrate that she wanted to go with her parents out of her free will during the court proceedings.
In an earlier hearing, the minor girl had said that she had married the suspect out of her own free will. However, the court sent her to a shelter home and ordered a medical examination. After the medical examination, the girl’s age was determined to be 15 years old.
The forced conversion of underage Hindu girls to Islam in Sindh is a severe issue. Human rights groups have continuously urged the government authorities to introduce laws regarding forced conversations.
Earlier, the United Nations had also urged Pakistan to curtail the practice of forced marriages of young girls from religious minorities to Muslim men. The United Nations had also called on Pakistani authorities to adopt and implement legislation in this regard.
In a statement, the UN had “expressed alarm” that young girls from religious minorities are kidnapped, trafficked, forcibly converted to Islam, and forced to marry men. The statement called on Pakistani authorities to curb this practice and uphold international human rights law.
Moreover, according to a recent report by the United States Institute of Peace, Pakistan has witnessed a surge in extremism and intolerance of diversity and dissent as the state-sanctioned laws and conservative narratives facilitate religious extremist elements and support their narrative, leaving little space for religious inclusion.
