Pakistani Hindu girl, abducted and forced to marry elderly Muslim man, reunites with family

Karachi: A Pakistani Hindu girl, who faced three harrowing months after being abducted, forcefully converted and married to a Muslim man, finally got to reunite with her family after a Sindh court’s order, a community leader said here.

A lower court in Umerkot, about 310 kms east of Karachi, ordered Sunita Kumari Maharaj to be reunited with her family on Saturday, according to Shiva Kaachi, a Hindu activist, who was involved in pleading the case for her parents.

Sunita was abducted from Kunri, a town in Mirpurkhas district, and later forced into conversion followed by forced marriage with a much older Muslim man.

According to local Hindu community leaders and rights activists she is among the few fortunate Hindu girls to get some justice.

“Sunita’s case is not an isolated one and this systematic abductions, forced conversions and marriages of Hindu girls is a crisis that continues to terrorise our community in Sindh,” Advocate Chandar Kohli from Umerkot said on Monday.

He said Sunita had been located in Umerkot after a case was filed by her parents and activists but the court sent her to a safe house after several hearings although she pleaded she was abducted and forced to convert and marry.

“The biggest problem is that in most cases the accused produce fake documents to prove their marriage is legal and from free will by the victims who are girls who mostly belong to poor families who don’t have the resources or knowledge to plead their cases,” he said.

“Which is why several Hindu leaders have now been actively encouraging and more educated Hindus to get involved since this is a big issue for our community,” Kohli added.

Earlier last month, a 15-year-old Hindu girl, who too was allegedly abducted, raped and forcibly married after being converted to Islam, had pleaded before a court in Pakistan’s Sindh province to be allowed to return to her family.

The teenage girl had appeared before a sessions court in Mirpurkhas district on October 10 and told the judge that she had been kidnapped, converted and married to an elderly Muslim man against her will. The court had directed the authorities concerned to keep the girl in a safe house until a final ruling is made.