“Anyone would convert their religion if he/she is at gun point,” says Kareena Kumari , a 16-year-old minor Hindu girl from Shaheed Benazirabad, Sindh, Pakistan.

A Hindu girl Kareena Kumari d/o (daughter of) Sundar Mal was abducted during the first week of July 2022, and later forcibly converted to Islam and married to her abductor.

After witnessing thousands of such cases and endless cries of family members of the victim girls, our motherland Sindh is experiencing deep feeling of pain, helplessness and weakness, which seems extremely hard to resolve.

Every now and then we hear the news of a girl belonging to minority community of Sindh, gets abducted, molested, converted and then forcefully married to a man ageing much more than her. And what happens after that?

• People protest for the recovery
• Demand the arrest of the abductors,
• But the girl favors her culprit in her legal statement. (Reason very well known)
• And then the case gets lost somewhere and everyone forgets.  

Although one such recent case, that luckily differs here is that of Kareena’s. One must praise people like Sundar Mal, who stood against all odds to pursue justice for his daughter Kareena. It is because of his courage that her daughter came back to her parents’ house and recorded her statement in favor of her parents rather than her abusers.

Some highlights of Kareena Kumari’s case of Forced Conversion:

• 16 year old minor Hindu girl from Shaheed Benazirabad Sindh was abducted by some religious extremist people during the first week of July.
• On 13 July she gave her statement in favor of her abductor Khalil Rehman that she has converted to Islam and also married to Khalil by her own will.
• Kareena’s name was changed to Ayesha after religious conversion.
• This resulted in the anger among the family and community people due to which protest was held outside the Zardari House in Shaheed Benazirabad.
• Dileep Kumar Manglani, an advocate came forward to help Kareena’s father Sundar Mal for filing a court case.
• On the hearing date 4^th August 2022, Kareena was not presented before the court which made her father worried about her.
• Sundar Mal stated in one of the video surfing on internet that one of the police constable named Munawar is supporting the criminals and is involved in the various cases of abduction of Hindu minor girls.
• Later the court hearing was adjourned to 11^th Aug 2022, ordering the victim to be presented before the court on that day.
• Advocate Dileep Kumar Manglani, with his full honesty and conviction fought the case on 11 August, resulting in Kareena being presented before the court and finally giving statement in favor of her parents.
• On 11 Aug 2022, Kareena stated “I want to live with my parents”.

What Kareena said after safely reaching home?

• I was abducted by Khalil Rehman.
• I was raped, abused and forcefully asked to convert to Islam.
• He married me forcibly and locked me inside a room.
• There was another woman who was abducted by him and he married her as well.
• He threatened me to follow their orders that is why I gave statement in favor of him.
• Anyone would convert their religion if he/she is at gun point like I did.

Kareena and her father are urging Sindh government and authorities to provide justice and demanding strong legal action against the abductors and molesters of Kareena. These criminals must be punished in a way that could be an example for more such criminal minded folks. #RaiseVoiceAgainstConversion.

(This article first appeared on thesindhinarratives.wordpress.com on Aug 16, 2022 and has been republished with minor edits to improve readability)