India to take up alleged conversion of Sikhs in Pakistan: Sushma Swaraj

Members of the Sikh community in Hangu district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province said an assistant commissioner was allegedly forcing Sikhs to embrace Islam.

India will take up at the highest level in the Pakistan government reports of Sikhs being forced to convert to Islam by a government official in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said on Tuesday.

Sikh devotees wave from windows of a train while leaving for Pakistan to celebrate the 548th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak. Some members of the Sikh community have alleged that they were being forcibly converted to Islam. (PTI file photo)

Her reaction came after leading Pakistan daily The Express Tribune published a news story about the Sikh community raising serious concerns after being forced to convert to Islam by the government official in Hangu district of K-P. “We will take this up at the highest level with the Government of Pakistan,” Swaraj tweeted while tagging the Indian high commission.

According to the news report, the community has lodged a complaint with deputy commissioner Hangu Shahid Mehmood, claiming that assistant commissioner (tehsil) Tall Yaqoob Khan was forcing Sikhs to convert to Islam.

Replying to a separate tweet regarding a man in Punjab trying to get body of his son, who was reportedly shot dead in Manila, Swaraj said the government was seized of the case. “Indian Embassy in Manila is pursuing this with the Police. The mortal remains will be sent from Manila on 21st December,” she tweeted.

Earlier, Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh urged Swaraj to take up with Pakistani authorities the issue of alleged forcible conversion. “We are duty-bound to protect the identity of Sikhs, wherever they may be living,” he said in a statement here. “Religious freedom is the right of every human being and should be upheld by all countries in the larger interest of humanity,” he said, adding that Swaraj’s intervention in the matter would help protect this basic right of the substantial Sikh community settled in Pakistan.

Later, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief Sukhbir Singh Badal too reacted to Swaraj’s tweet: “I thank external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj ji for taking up issue of Sikhs being coerced to convert in Pakistan. She could also press for action against guilty official. Sikhs in Pakistan have right to follow their beliefs and none can be allowed to take this away from them.”

(With agency inputs)