Pakistan: Muslim convert sisters under gov't custody

KARACHI, 26 Mar 2019 [Fik/News Sources]: A high court in Pakistan on Tuesday placed under government custody two Hindu girls who had reportedly converted to Islam and married Muslim men last week, local media reported. 

Athar Minallah, the chief justice of the Islamabad High Court, appointed a guardian judge and ordered police not to arrest the two sisters -- Raveen (now Asiya), and Areena (Nadia) -- or the husbands, local broadcaster ARY News reported.

The girls' father and brother have accused the Muslim husbands of abducting the sisters and forcing them into converting to Islam, an allegation which the girls have rejected, saying they had embraced Islam and got married at their free will.

A medical board has been tasked with determining if the girls are over 18 years of age, which they have claimed to be so and their parents have rejected.

The sisters, who hail from the Ghotki district of the southern Sindh province, had filed a petition in the Islamabad court seeking protection for themselves and their husbands against police arrest. 

Several family members of the Muslim men and a religious scholar who administered their marriages with the Hindu sisters have been reportedly detained by Sindh police. 

The court also ordered the country's human rights minister to submit her report from an inquiry ordered by Prime Minister Imran Khan over rights of Hindus and other minorities before April 2, when the court will convene for the next hearing.

Hindus make up slightly over 2 percent of the total 210 million population of Muslim-dominated Pakistan. A majority of the Hindus -- nearly 90 percent -- belongs to the scheduled or the lowest caste of Hindus.

The community has long been complaining about alleged abduction of their girls and forced conversion to Islam.