India protests abduction, conversion of minority women in Pakistan

With over 55 Sikh women being kidnapped and forcibly converted to Islam in Pakistan over the past few months, New Delhi on Monday took up the issue with Imran Khan’s government in Islamabad and asked it to stop the persecution of religious minority community in the neighbouring country.

A senior diplomat of the High Commission of Pakistan in New Delhi was summoned to the South Block, where top officials of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) conveyed his concerns of the Government of India over a series of incidents of abduction and forced conversion of women of minority communities in the neighbouring country, sources said.

New Delhi also conveyed to Islamabad the anguish of the Sikhs in India over such incidents of persecution of the community in Pakistan.

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India particularly took up with Pakistan the recent incident of alleged abduction and suspected forced conversion of Bulbul Kaur, the daughter of Pritam Singh, a ‘granthi’ (or reader of holy text Guru Granth Sahib) of the historic Panja Sahib Gurdwara at Hassan Abdal in the neighbouring country.

A delegation of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) had on Saturday met the senior MEA officials and requested that the Government of India should take up with Pakistan the issue of alleged abduction and forcible conversion of Bulbul Kaur. The MEA officials summoned the diplomat of the High Commission of Pakistan in New Delhi and conveyed the concerns of India.

Another Sikh girl, Jagjit Kaur, daughter of a ‘granthi’ of Gurdwara Nankana Sahib in Pakistan, was also kidnapped and forced to convert to Islam last year, the DSGMC leaders had pointed out during the meeting with the MEA officials.