A case of love jihad including cheating, marriage and abandonment after religious conversion had surfaced in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district. These allegations were levelled by a girl from Madhya Pradesh against a man named Shaukat Pathan, who is said to be a Surankot village in Jammu and Kashmir.
The victim worked as a model in Noida city of Uttar Pradesh. She informed that the accused first lured her into his love trap by pretending to be a Kashmiri Hindu named Sunny and then married her. Afterwards, he disclosed his real identity and forced her to convert. She gave in to his pressure but the accused and his family continued to harass her. He then married a different woman without divorcing her.
The victim has been living in Surankot for the past three and a half years while seeking justice. She has already registered seven cases against him and his family.
On 7th October she told the reporters that she was a model in Noida and the two met during the time. He introduced himself as Sunny and masqueraded as a Kashmiri Hindu. Love blossomed between them and visited the holy shrine of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi in Katra where he pledged to marry her. After they travelled to Kashmir and stayed there for a few days before returning to his native place where he unveiled that he was in fact a Muslim.
He coerced her to embrace Islam, wedded her and started their new life journey in the hamlet of Mohra Bachhai, but after a few days, his whole family began tormenting her. Sometimes, she was pressured to eat non-vegetarian food and other times to cook meat. Now, the offender has married a daughter of his close relative.
She showed the wounds on her body and disclosed that multiple attempts were made to kill her, but she never lost courage. She submitted a case, although the authorities did not take it seriously. She accused her spouse’s brother of being a terrorist and asserted that he was presently in Pakistan. “His brother was involved in the bombings in Jammu’s Narwal this year and Shaukat Pathan was also interrogated. I am wandering for justice. Police should take strict action against the entire family.”
At least nine people were injured after twin blasts rocked the Narwal area of Jammu early this year. Two high-intensity blasts took place within 30 minutes in the vicinity. Terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba was reportedly behind the assault.
Meanwhile, the perpetrator denied all the charges and claimed that she married him of her own free will and already knew about his religious identity. “Now she is blackmailing my family. I have given her five lakh rupees. She has launched seven cases against me and my family members. The police questioned me regarding the Narwal blast, but nothing was proved. My brother has gone to Pakistan since 1997.”
In this matter, Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) Surankot Abdul Hameed proclaimed, “The girl had registered seven cases out of which challans of six have been presented in the court. Our investigation is ongoing in one case.”
