LI Network
Published on: 11 June 2023 at 19:22 IST
A 14-year-old Hindu girl from Pakistan’s Sindh province, named Sohana Sharma Kumari, was reportedly abducted from her home at gunpoint on June 2 by her tutor and his associates. She was then allegedly forcibly converted to Islam and married to a Muslim man.
The incident led to her father, Dilip Kumar, filing a complaint with the police regarding her kidnapping. However, despite Sohana’s insistence that she wanted to be with her parents, a district court refused to allow her to go with them. In a video that surfaced later, the girl appeared to be under duress as she stated that she had willingly converted to Islam and married the Muslim man.
Despite the parents’ insistence that she was underage, the police managed to locate and rescue the girl from a house in the district after widespread outcry on social media. Sohana Sharma Kumari was brought before the district court in Larkana, where she testified that she had been kidnapped and forcibly converted to Islam, expressing her desire to be reunited with her parents.
However, the judge postponed the hearing until June 12, expressing concerns about her statement being made under pressure, and ordered her placement in a women’s shelter home. Sohana’s mother revealed that the tutor, who took her daughter by force, had previously asked for a loan of ₹100,000. The father disputed the authenticity of the documents presented by the accused to prove Sohana’s conversion and marriage, highlighting that she is only 14 years old.
Incidents of kidnapping and forced conversions of young Hindu girls in the interior of Sindh have become a significant issue, prompting affected families to seek justice and the return of their loved ones through lower courts.
Despite efforts by minority organizations, such as Pakistan Darawar Ittehad (PDI), the return of Hindu girls to their families is rare, often due to a lack of cooperation from the police.
The president of PDI cited numerous cases where underage girls were abducted and forced into marriages with much older men, questioning how a young girl could willingly marry someone with multiple wives and children. Hindus constitute the largest minority community in Pakistan.