The Islamabad High Court today ordered the state to ensure that the two girls who were abducted and forcefully married to Muslim men following forced religious conversion are taken into custody and safety is provided. Earlier today, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had questioned Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on his promises of ‘Naya Pakistan’ and promises of safety to minorities.
As per reports, two underage Hindu girls Raveena (13) and Reena (15) had been abducted from their home in Pakistan’s Sindh on the eve of Holi. The girls have since been forcefully converted and married off to older Muslim men. The case has generated widespread outrage among the minority Hindus of Pakistan who have been struggling for their rights under apathetic governments in Pakistan.
The FIR in the case could only be registered after the Hindus in the region took to streets in protest. The videos of the girls being converted and married have been doing rounds on the social media and Islamic clerics have been claiming that the girls, aged just 13 and 15, have converted to Islam under their own free will and were married to Muslim men.
India’s minister for external affairs Sushma Swaraj had taken cognisance of the issue earlier and had asked the Indian High Commission in Pakistan for a detailed report of the incident.
Pakistan’s government has so far been callous and apathetic over the incident. While the local police, who only lodged an FIR after protestors took to streets, have so far been unable to rescue the girls and unite them with their family, Ch Fawad Hussain, Pakistan’s I&B minister had tried to warn Sushma Swaraj for ‘trying to interfere in internal issues’ of Pakistan. Swaraj had replied that his agitation is only betraying his guilty conscience.
