Ghotki (Staff Report): At least seven people, including a Nikah Khwan (marriage officiator), suspected of involvement in the alleged abductions, forced conversions and underage marriages of two minor Hindu sisters have been arrested.
According to police, several raids were conducted in Punjab's Rahim Yar Khan district ─ where it was believed the girls were taken from Ghotki ─ and arrested the Nikah Khwan who solemnised their marriages, a leader of the Pakistan Sunni Tehreek, and some relatives of the two men who had married the two girls.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Imran Khan took notice and directed the Punjab and Sindh governments to launch probe into reports of abduction, forced conversion and underage marriages of two teenage Hindu girls.
“Prime Minister Khan has asked the Sindh and Punjab governments to investigate reports of the two girls being shifted to Rahim Yar Khan from Ghotki,” Minister for Information Fawad Chaudhry tweeted. “The prime minister further asked that the two girls be retrieved if they have indeed been moved to the city,” he added.
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“Mam its Pakistin internal issue and rest assure its not Modi’s India where minorities are subjugated its Imran Khan’s Naya Pak where white color of our flag is equally dearer to us.I hope you ll act with same diligence when it comes to rights of Indian Minorities,” said Chaudhry in response to Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj’s tweet.
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In videos circulating on social media, the father and brother of the girls say that the two sisters were abducted and forced into changing their religion from Hinduism to Islam.
However, a separate video of the girls is also making rounds, in which they say that they accepted Islam of their own free will.
