India fumes as Hindu girls abducted in Pakistan
Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee president Manjinder Singh Sirsa alleged that the Meghwad sisters were kidnapped by Saleem and Abadin Anwar.
New Delhi: The ministry of external affairs on Friday summoned a senior official of the Pakistan high commission in New Delhi to lodge strong protest and share serious concerns about the recent cases of abduction of three Hindu minor girls in Pakistan.
According to reports, two sisters — Shanti Meghwad and Sarmi Meghwad — were “forcibly” abducted on January 14. They belong to Umar village of Tharparkar district of Sindh area in Pakistan. In another incident, a minor also belonging to the minority Hindu community was abducted from the Jacobabad district of Sindh province in Pakistan on January 15.
Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee president Manjinder Singh Sirsa alleged that the Meghwad sisters were kidnapped by Saleem and Abadin Anwar. He claimed that the parents of the girls were told they will be converted to Islam and married to these men.
Sirsa claimed that the parents of the third girl have been informed by her kidnapper named Ali Raza that she has been raped and “don’t think of getting her back.”
The minor’s father told mediapersons in Pakistan that Ali Raza is a father of four and already has two wives.
“The girl was abducted in the morning before she could go to school,” he said. He has filed a complaint with the police in Pakistan.
Sources in India government said that Pakistan has been conveyed “the grave concerns” as expressed amongst various quarters of the Indian civil society “at such a shocking and deplorable incident” involving minor girls from the minority Hindu community in Pakistan.
“The incidents have been strongly condemned and asked for immediate safe return of the girls to their families,” sources said.
The latest incidents of kidnapping and forced conversion of Pakistani minority girls comes nearly four months after a Sikh girl was abducted and converted to Islam from Nankana Saheb.
The number of Sikh and Hindu girls kidnapped, raped and forcibly converted has now touched 50 in the last one year.
Sirsa claimed more than 1000 girls in Sindh region alone have been abducted, raped and forced into prostitution in Pakistan. He urged the Indian government to raise the matter with the United Nations against “this crime against humanity”.