Pakistani Hindu woman kidnapped in Sindh; family fears forced ‘conversion’, ‘marriage’
This is the latest in the recent menace of armed men kidnapping Hindu women and forcibly converting them to Islam before marrying them off to ‘older’ men.
A Pakistani Hindu woman and her minor daughter were reportedly kidnapped by unidentified gunmen in Pakistan's Sindh province, officials said.
The woman was forcibly taken away by three gunmen in a white Alto car, just minutes after she stepped out of her home in the Sindhi Mohalla in Karachi's Sher Shah, news agency PTI reported, citing initial accounts provided by her family.
The abduction has raised fear and concern within the local community amid the frequent cases of Hindu girls and women being kidnapped and forcibly converted to Islam, and being married off to Muslim men, who are much older than them.
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Shiva Kaachi, a civil rights activist for the Hindu community in Sindh, said the woman, Rani, and her minor daughter were still missing. He reportedly said that Rani's family feared she would be forced to convert to Islam and then be married off to one of the kidnappers.
What FIR says
While an FIR has been registered, Kaachi said, "it was a deeply alarming situation, the way three unidentified armed men abducted the Hindu mother and her daughter".
He appealed to the senior police officials to take notice of such incidents, which were occurring frequently. Kaachi said that the Muslim men, to whom these Hindu women are forcibly married, are much older than the girls in most cases.
Additionally, the activist said that he himself has been receiving death threats from groups that are involved in this abduction, forced conversion and marriage menace.
"I have received death threats on the phone, and I fear for my life, but I have reported the matter to the police and have asked for security," he was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
In a similar case in Sindh province's Umerkot city, armed men tried to abduct a Hindu girl who had recently gotten married.
The girl, Bhagvi, was on her way home with her husband to meet her parents when the incident occurred.
Fortunately, the armed assailants' kidnapping attempt failed as people stepped in and attacked them, forcing the men to drive away.
