Anger over Pak Hindu teen girl’s ‘conversion’

A 16-year-old Hindu girl’s alleged abduction and conversion in Pakistan has created an uproar in the minority community, a media report said on Friday.

Ravita Meghwar was abducted from the Syed community of Wanharo village near Nagarparkar in the southern Sindh province on June 6.

On Friday, she and her “husband” Nawaz Ali Shah met local journalists in Umerkot to “inform” them of her consent in the conversion and marriage, Dawn reported. The girl, demanding protection for herself and husband, said that she had not been kidnapped but had eloped with Shah.

She claimed to have “embraced Islam” in the presence of Pir Mohammad Ayub Jan Farooqui, an Islamic preacher, near the Samarro town of Umerkot district, it said.

However, the Hindu community, along with the girl’s family, has insisted she was kidnapped and forced to convert.

Her father Satram Das Meghwar alleged that influential members of the Syed community had kidnapped his daughter after giving sleeping pills to the family. He alleged that despite frequent appeals, Thar police did not take any action to trace the girl till she was forced to convert.

According to the marriage certificate issued by the preacher, the girl is 18 years old. However, her primary school certificate shows she is only 16 as she was born in 2001. PTI