3 Hindu sisters in Pakistan's Sindh province forced to marry Muslim men

Karachi: Three daughters of a Hindu businessman in Pakistan's Sindh province have been married to Muslim men who first kidnapped them and forcibly converted them to Islam, according to a leading minority rights group in the country.

The head of Pakistan Darewar Itehad, Shiva Kachhi, said that the incident took place in Sindh's Dharki area where Chandni, Roshni and Parmesh Kumari, daughters of a Hindu businessman, Leela Ram, were first abducted and then forcibly converted to Islam.

"The conversion was performed by one Pir Javed Ahmed Qadri and later they were also married to Muslim men," he said.

Kachhi said despite appeals and pleas from his organisation's platform, the problem of forcible conversion of Hindu girls was continuing unabated with the police and authorities not apprehending the culprits.

He said that the three sisters were married to the same men who abducted them. Kachhi also claimed that the attacks on the Hindu community in the riverine areas have spiked since the Seema Haider incident.

Seema Haider, a Pakistani woman and a mother of four, sneaked into India to live with a Hindu man, Sachin Meena, whom she befriended through an online game platform.

She was ostracised by her family and neighbours for daring to defy the societal norms of a conservative Muslim country.

There have been daily threats from dacoits in the riverine areas to retaliate against Hindus because of this incident, Kachhi said.

Last week, a gang of dacoits attacked a Hindu temple with rocket launchers along with adjoining homes belonging to Hindus in the Kashmore area of the Sindh province.

"After the temple of Bhagri's was attacked by some dacoits in Kashmore, the authorities have now sent Hindu policemen for the security of temples and worship places in Mirpurkhas, Kashmore, Tharparkar, Ghotki, Sukkur, Umarkot and Sanghar," Kacchi alleged.

He claimed these Hindu policemen had also been sent to riverine areas to hunt the dacoits.

"These are poor Hindu people who are serving in low positions in police belonging to different areas of Sindh and the authorities now want them to provide security for the Hindu worship places," Kacchi added.

Hindus form the biggest minority community in Pakistan.

The majority of Pakistan's Hindu population is settled in Sindh province where they share culture, traditions and language with Muslim residents.