Kerala police intensify 'love jihad' investigation

Two Muslim youths were recently arrested for luring two postgraduate girl students of Pathanamthitta district into marriage by “feigning love’’ and later forcing them to convert to Islam. The police which investigated the instances on the direction of the High Court had revealed that the alliances were part of “love jihad’’ or “Romeo jihad’’ being waged by certain outfits. The court had called for a detailed probe into the matter.

The arrest of the youths came after one of the girls said she had eloped with the older student in her college who had taken her and her friend to a “conversion centre’’ in Malappuram where they were given extremist literature. Since one of the girls was a Christian and the other a Hindu, both the Church and Hindu outfits had come out against the alarming trend.

A direction has been issued for the second time by DGP Jacob Punnose to all district superintendents of police to look out for similar instances in areas coming under their jurisdiction. Even though there has only been two instances in Kerala, it had come to light that a similar case was reported from Karnataka. The main obstacle before the investigators is the fact that many aggrieved families did not volunteer to part with information on their experience. The Kerala Catholic Bishops Conference and Vishwa Hindu Parishad claim that the number of girls falling prey to handsome Muslim youths and later made to convert had been going up.