Union minister Sushma Swaraj seeks report on alleged abduction of two Hindu girls in Pakistan
Reports said the teenage girls were allegedly forced to convert to Islam.
Union Minister of External Affairs on Sunday sought details on the alleged abduction of two Hindu girls on the eve of Holi in Pakistan’s Sindh province. The two teenage girls were allegedly forcibly converted to Islam, according to Pakistan Today.
Swaraj said she has asked the Indian High Commissioner in Pakistan to send a report on the incident.
According to The Times of India, the girls were kidnapped and allegedly forced to convert to Islam in Dharki town of Sindh’s Ghotki district. This led to massive protests by the Hindu community in Sindh, seeking stern action against the perpetrators.
Pakistan’s Minister for Information Fawad Hussain Chaudhry on Saturday said the federal government has taken note of the media reports. A purported video circulating on social media showed the girls’ father and brother saying that the two sisters were abducted and forced into changing their religion. A separate video, however, showed the two minor girls in which they purportedly said they accepted Islam of their own free will, according to Pakistan Today.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has ordered the Singh and Punjab governments to investigate the matter and retrieve the girls if they have been taken to Rahim Yar Khan from Ghotki, Dawn reported.
Responding to Swaraj’s tweet, Chaudhry said this was Pakistan’s internal matter and that he hoped the Indian government would also “act with the same diligence” when it comes to the rights of Indian minorities.
Swaraj, in her reply to Chaudhry, said: “I only asked for a report from Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad about the kidnapping and forced conversion of two minor Hindu girls to Islam. This was enough to make you jittery. This only shows your guilty conscience.”
Ties between India and Pakistan have been strained since the Pulwama attack on February 14, in which 40 Indian soldiers were killed.