Rampant persecution of religious minorities has become a common feature of Pakistani society as one more news of Christian girl being forcibly converted to Islam has come to fore. In past seven days, this is the third case of girls belonging to minority communities are being subjected to forced religious conversion.
In the latest incident, a 15-year-old Christian girl in Pakistan was allegedly forced to convert to Islam by her teacher in Pakistan’s Punjab province. As per complaint filed by the victim’s father, Mukhtar Masih at the police station, Faiza was taken to a seminary in Skeikhupura, about 50 KMs away from Lahore, where her principal Saleema Bibi forced her to embrace Islam.
According to Faiza’s father, his daughter had gone to school on Wednesday but didn’t return. When he contacted school authorities to know about Faiza’s whereabouts, he was informed that the principal Saleema had chaperoned her to a madarsa to allegedly convert her to Islam.
Mukhtar revealed that in a frantic search for her daughter, he visited three madarsas and found his daughter in one of them. However, the madarsa staff was adamant and didn’t allow his daughter to return with him. The police then raided the madarsa, based on Mukhtar’s complaint and rescued his daughter who was later sent to a shelter home in Sheikhupura.
The police said that they had recovered the girl based on Mukesh’s complaint. However, an FIR is yet to be filed in the case. The police maintains that the investigations is underway.
Mukhtar claims that her daughter’s principal Saleema said to her daughter that since she read Arabic, she automatically became a Muslim. She also offered to pay compensation to the family for getting converted to Islam but the family refused the offer.
A few days back, a 19-year-old Sikh girl was allegedly kidnapped and forced to marry a Muslim man in Pakistan. The incident attracted widespread condemnation as Punjab CM Amarinder Singh slammed Pakistan PM Imran Khan for not ensuring safety of minorities in Pakistan.
