Hindus stage protest over conversion of minor girls in Pakistan's Sindh

Karachi: Pakistan’s minority Hindu community members have staged a protest in Hyderabad city in the southern Sindh province, alleging forced conversion and marriage of three minor Hindu girls.

The minor girls were abducted in Sanghar district of Sindh province on July 13 and later forcibly converted and married to Muslim men, according to the FIR filed by the police on the complaints of the affected families on Monday night.

The FIR was registered after the families of the girls staged protests on Sunday and Monday, insisting that the girls were underage.

However, the three girls appeared before the Sindh High Court’s Hyderabad Circuit Bench on Wednesday and admitted to willingly changing religion and marrying the Muslim men.

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The girl appeared before the court along with their husband.

Meanwhile, the Sindh Human Rights Commission’s Chairman Iqbal Ahmed Detho said he had written a letter to senior police officials to conduct a fair and impartial investigation of the matter.

”If the girls are proven to be underage as claimed by their parents, then the solemnization of the marriages would come under the Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act, 2013,” he said.

Shiva Kaachi, head of a welfare organisation formed for the welfare of the Hindu community, said incidents of Hindu girls being abducted, forcibly converted and married off to Muslim men have become a menace in the Sindh province.

”Every few days we get such cases, and normally the parents of the affected girls are very poor and cannot afford to hire lawyers and fight long cases,” Kaachi said.

Majority of Pakistan’s Hindu population is settled in Sindh province where they share culture, traditions and language with their Muslim fellows.

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