Days after allegations of forced religious conversion of Sikh girls into Islam in Kashmir came to the fore, prominent businessman Zafar Sareshwala is accused of whitewashing the crime of grooming jihad. Sareshwala clamed that one of the two Sikh girls was 27-years-old, was in love with a 37-year-old Muslim man and had converted to Islam of her own volition.
Author Amaan Bali took to Twitter to refute the claims made by Zafar Sareshwala in his tweets. Bali said Zafar’s claims are fake and stated that he was conflating two different cases to whitewash the alleged forced conversion of two Sikh girls.
“Fake. This is not true. There are two cases. The girl in the case of Rainawari is 18yr old and unstable. The girl in the case of Mehjoor Nagar is 32yrs Old. What’s the urge to whitewash the crime when people on the ground have already accepted the cases?” Bali tweeted.
https://twitter.com/amaanbali/status/1409492660440625156?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwBali’s tweet was in response to tweets posted by Zafar Sareshwala where he alleged that the outrage over the forced religious conversion was motivated and misplaced as the girl was in love with a Muslim man and had willingly converted to Islam.
Zafar claimed he had spoken to “important people” in Kashmir , who informed him that there was no truth to the story of forceful conversion and marriage of Sikh woman to a Muslim. Sareshwala is the former Chancellor of the Maulana Azad national Urdu University.
https://twitter.com/zafarsareshwala/status/1409490060144111617?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw“The Sikh Girl is 27, Muslim Boy is 37 and they were in Love for the past 7 years! The Girl in the open court in front of the Magistrate declared her love and said she has converted on her own will! Now Venom Spreaders Go Home & REST,” Sareshwala tweeted.
The case of abduction and forced religious conversion of Sikh girls in Kashmir
On June 26, a case of abduction and religious conversion of two Sikh girls came to light from Jammu & Kashmir. As per reports, an 18-year-old Sikh Girl from Badgam district was lured and converted to Islam. Another case was of a girl from Mehjoor Nagar in Srinagar, attended function of her Muslim friend, from where she was reportedly kidnapped and married off to a boy who attended the function. While the girl was not a minor, she is still missing.
The reports of abduction and conversion of two Sikh girls to Islam stirred a massive online furore, with scandalised people demanding action against the culprits. Shiromani Akali Dal leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa and Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) also raised the issue on social media platforms urging the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir to intervene.
According to Sardar Santpal Singh, President Gurudwara Parbandhak Committee-Budgam, who narrated the whole incident, one of the two girls was mentally unstable. A Muslim man lured her on the pretext of love and marriage to convert her. He said, “A girl from Sikh community has been forcefully converted to Islam. She is not mentally stable. The man lured her on the pretext of love. It is not a love affair but a clear case of Love Jihad. The government is acting negatively against us.”
He further added that despite written assurance by the SP who was handling the case that she would be handed over back to the Sikh family, the court orders came against them. He said, “The police inspector had assured in writing that the girl would be handed over to them after presenting her in the Court. However, the judge gave the judgement in favour of the Muslim man and handed over the girl to him.”