Speaking to the media about the reported abduction and religious conversion of two Sikh girls in Kashmir, Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) president Bibi Jagir Kaur informed that one of the two, who was married off to a Muslim man, does not want to reconvert and neither does she want to come back to her family.
According to a report by The Tribune, the SGPC president, while addressing the media in Patiala said, “As Sikhs, it is the family’s duty to educate and encourage their children to follow the Sikh way of life. We, as the SGPC can only preach about the religion but no one can force a religion on someone.”
She informed that the girl’s family and relatives had approached SGPC, requesting them to try and convince their daughter to revert to Sikhism and come back home. “The girl instead did not relent and as such, we can’t force anything on her,” Jagir Kaur said.
In the year 2012, Jagir Kaur was arrested and sent to jail after being held guilty of conspiracy in the mysterious death of her daughter Harpreet Kaur, who was found dead on April 20, 2000. Jagir Kaur, who was then also the president of the powerful Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) was sentenced to five years of rigorous imprisonment for the abduction and forced abortion of her daughter. Bibi, who was a cabinet rank minister in the Prakash Singh Badal government had to resign. Jagir had got bail after spending 7 months in jail.
She was later acquitted by the Court.
SAD leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa urges Amit Shah to intervene, says HM assured support
Earlier in the day, SAD leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa had taken to Twitter to inform that he had urged HM Amit Shah to intervene in the case. The HM had, in turn, assured about the safety of minority Sikh girls in the Valley.
The case of the missing Sikh girls from Kashmir
OpIndia had reported how on June 26th, a case of alleged forced conversion came to light from Jammu & Kashmir. As per reports, an 18-year-old Sikh Girl from Badgam district was lured and forcefully converted to Islam at gunpoint. Shiromani Akali Dal leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa and Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) had also raised the issue on social media platforms urging the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir to intervene.
Another case is of a girl from Mehjoor Nagar in Srinagar who attended a function of her Muslim friend. As per reports, she was married off to a boy who attended the function. While the girl was not a minor, she is still missing.
Sardar Santpal Singh, President Gurudwara Parbandhak Committee- Budgam, who narrated the whole incident, had said that the girl who was reportedly married off to a Muslim boy was mentally unstable. According to Santpal Singh, the Muslim boy lured her on the pretext of love and marriage to convert her.
According to reports, after the news surfaced about two Sikh girls being allegedly kidnapped and then forcefully converted, thus falling victim to ‘grooming jihad’, protests broke out in Kashmir. SAD leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa who led the protest in the valley demanded that an anti-forced religious conversion law be passed in Jammu and Kashmir to save Sikh women from forced religious conversions.
