PAKISTAN, February 17, 2014 (Saharasamay): A report from Karachi said on Monday, Feb. 17, that leaders of the community say girls as young as six years were being pressured to change their religion.
“Can you accept your daughters being forcibly married to Muslim men?” said Raj Kumar, whose niece Rinkle Kumari was allegedly forced to convert and marry a Muslim man in 2012. Kumar, whose niece’s case made headlines and was taken up by the Supreme Court, was speaking at a seminar at the Karachi Press Club on Sunday, Feb. 16, on the theme “Hindus in Pakistan–issues and solutions”.
Marju and Soma, parents of six-year-old Jumna and 10-year-old Pooja, residents of Mirpurkhas city in Sindh province, were present at the event. When their girls went missing on February 4, they raised an alarm. “After several reports in the media about our missing girls, it was found that they had been staying with a man named Rajab Pathan. The police of our area later produced them in court as Muslim children. Soma said the court sent the girls to a Darul Aman or womens’ home following suspicions they may have been subjected to child abuse at home.
“Little Jumna has been given back to us now but Pooja is still at the Darul Aman. She seems to have been brainwashed into saying strange things about us. Her mind seems affected by the trauma,” he said.