A minor Hindu girl was abducted and compelled to convert to Islam and marry her abductor in Moro, district Shaheed Benazirabad (formerly Nawabshah), in Sindh province of Pakistan. Pooja Thakur, the daughter of Sono Thakur, was reportedly kidnapped and converted to Islam by one Nadeem Ali Mashori.
A video emerged last month of the abductor sitting alongside a subdued-looking Pooja, claiming that they have ‘married of their own free will’ and telling Pooja’s family not to ‘bother them’. Pooja keeps looking down during most of the video, and doesn’t say a word.
This abduction follows an established pattern, and is part of the institutionalized persecution of Hindus by the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
There is a well-developed ecosystem in Pakistan consisting of dargahs and madrasas where the abducted girls are usually taken for rape and forced conversion, and maulvis and lawyers draw up the conversion certificate and nikahnama (marriage contract). Videos quickly emerge of the victim parroting whatever her abductors force her to say. Police is also mostly hand in glove with these powerful Islamic lobbies and men like Mian Mithoo, Pir of the infamous Bharchundi Sharif dargah in Ghotki, Sindh who has the backing of Pakistan Army-ISI and is personally responsible for the forced conversion and sexual slavery of hundreds of Hindu girls.
Most times, the victim’s family gets no hearing and poor Hindus lack the resources to fight the powerful abduction mafia. Few cases make it to court, but the institutionalized persecution continues there as well. Most judges first send the girl to a ‘shelter home’. Her parents are not allowed to meet her, but the abductors and Islamic fundamentalists continue threatening and pressurizing her to deny the abduction and forced conversion in front of the magistrate. Age-related documentation showing their daughter to be minor is often brushed aside by the courts and the girl is handed back to her abductor, in a complete travesty of justice. A law against forced conversions has been put in deep freeze by the govt of Pakistan due to pressure from Islamic clerics. Sindh also has a law prohibiting child marriage, but its implementation is poor.
According to the American Sindhi Foundation, approximately one thousand females belonging to minority communities are abducted, converted, and wed to Muslim men annually in the province of Sindh.
The issue of forcible conversion of Hindu females has gained prominence since the 2012 case of Rinkle Kumari, who was abducted, forced to convert to Islam and marry a Muslim man. The occurrences of violence and prejudice directed at the Hindu community in Pakistan warrant urgent international attention as this is nothing short of a silent genocide of Pakistani Hindus and other minorities.
Unfortunately, despite Pakistan’s horrific human rights record and its proven role as a state sponsor of terror, it continues to enjoy a privileged position in the global ‘rules-based international order’, with USA according it Major Non-NATO Ally (MNNA) status, and powerful Western nations like UK and others too engaging with Pakistan in a normal manner.
