Pakistan: Hindu woman kidnapped, raped, converted to Islam and married to Muslim abductor

Islamabad: In yet another shocking incident raising concerns over the situation of minorities in Pakistan, a Hindu woman from Matli in Sindh province was kidnapped, raped, converted to Islam and married to her abductor, local media reported. The woman was reportedly kidnapped by a Muslim man, named Sanaullah. Recently, a Pakistani court did not allow a Hindu girl to leave a shelter home and go with her parents despite medical tests confirming that she was 16 years old when forcibly abducted, converted to Islam and married to her abductor, in Pakistan’s Sindh province. The girl was abducted two months ago from Sindh’s Hyderabad city and was recovered and sent to a safe home on 20 October after a court ruling. The court had ordered a medical examination to determine the girl’s age as her alleged husband submitted a marriage certificate showing that she was 19 years of age. But medical tests confirmed she was 16 years old and underage. The abduction and forcible conversion of young Hindu girls have become a major problem in the interior of Sindh province which has a large Hindu population in Thar, Umerkot, Mirpurkhas, Ghotki and Khairpur areas. On July 16, 2019, the issue of abducting and forcibly converting Hindu girls in various districts of Sindh province was taken up in the Sindh Assembly, where a resolution was debated and unanimously passed after it was modified over objections of certain lawmakers that it should not be restricted to Hindu girls only. But the bill which criminalised forcible religious conversions was later rejected by the assembly. A similar bill was again proposed but rejected last year. (With inputs from PTI) Read all the Latest News , Trending News ,  Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.