New Delhi, Mar 26 (IT): Week after two minor Hindu girls were abducted and forcefully converted to Islam in Pakistan, the Islamabad High Court has ordered immediate recovery of the girls.
The court has ordered the government to keep the two girls in state custody. The order was passed during a hearing of a petition filed by the two girls who have apparently claimed that their families will try to kill them for converting to Islam and marrying.
Pakistani media has reported that a video has surfaced in which the girls aged 15 and 13 years have claimed that they willingly converted to Islam.
Minister of External Affairs (MEA) Sushma Swaraj has refuted the claims of willing conversion in a series of tweets on Tuesday morning. Swaraj said, "Even the Prime Minister on Naya Pakistan will not believe that girls of this tender age can voluntarily decide about their conversion to another religion and marriage."
Swaraj also said, "Justice demands that both these girls should be restored to their family immediately."
Pakistan has arrested at least seven people, including a man who assisted in solemnising the wedding of two teenage Hindu girls after their alleged abduction and forced conversions.
The two girls, Raveena (13) and Reena (15), were allegedly kidnapped by a group of "influential" men from their home in Ghotki district in Sindh on the eve of Holi. Soon after the kidnapping, a video went viral in which a cleric was purportedly shown soleminising the Nikah (marriage) of the two girls, triggering a nationwide outrage.
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has ordered a probe into the incident after the two separate videos started doing rounds on social media.
Citing police, Dawn reported that several raids were conducted on Sunday night in Punjab's Rahim Yar Khan district - where it was believed the girls were taken from Ghotki - and arrested the Nikah Khwan who solemnised their marriages, a leader of the Pakistan Sunni Tehreek, and some relatives of the two men who had married the two girls.